Keeper
by fallen11angel
Summary: Things have a strange way of turning in the opposite direction. Head Boy and Head Girl, bearing grudges and developing crushes, what could eventually falling in love possibly have anything to do with it? DracoHermione.
1. Catching These Glances

**Keeper**

A Fanfic Inspired By The Song "Keeper" By Yellowcard

_Chapter One_

Disclaimer : I do not own any of the characters or places in this story, they are all completely J K Rowling's. The only thing I do own, is the plot. Otherwise, I would be really rich if I did own the other elements. But that is only really wishful thinking.

Summary : A Draco and Hermione Fanfic. Things have a strange way of turning in the opposite direction. Head Boy and Head Girl, bearing grudges and developing crushes, what could falling in love possibly have anything to do with it?

So, on with the story...

* * *

Draco listened to the distant drumming of the Hogwarts train on the railway tracks, and the rattling of each train carriage as they moved from side to side, forcefully. Draco Malfoy, and every other student in the magical world, were now on their way back to school from their long and much enjoyed summer vacation.

It felt more of a relief than anything else actually; he was beginning to become particularly tired of being in the Malfoy Manor. So cold, dark and lonely, it was more like prison. No one was ever there; his mother was always out with unknown people, his father was in Azkaban, so he was forced into a depressing and murky non-existence for the entire time he was at home. Well, if it was worthy enough to be called a home. To be honest, he felt that he had not really experienced a real and warm home, just somewhere to sleep at night or, to go to when there was no where else to go. But none the less, it was all that he had. The only place to be, and his family was all that he got.

He sighed to himself as the he leant his forehead on the cold glass window, watching trees and scenery speed by as the train rushed past them, and breathing a hot fog onto the glass. Though he had little time to see the area, he took comfort in the autumn colours that blurred together in the swiftness and noted that he was nearly at school. At least there, he wouldn't be alone.

* * *

Hermione tucked a rather crumpled letter from Dumbledore into the pocket of her robe and sat up straight again, leaning into the depth and comfort of her chair. Poking at the outside of her jeans to make sure, every so once in a little while, that the letter was still there. Though she knew it was physically impossible for her to loose an item as valuable (well, valuable to her) as a letter from school, she still tried to ensure its extremist safety.

Dumbledore, had recently written to her during the summer holiday, congratulating and telling her that she had been chosen for the post of Head girl. Obviously, she had been overjoyed. Not that it had been her life-long dream or anything…

"_Right."_

After the crazy celebrations and of course, joyous squealing, she thought about her new position along a more serious note. She had been wondering for the remainder of her summer, what sort of duties they would have set up for her – cheerfully preparing her clipboard and quill for this - and who would become the Head boy. She thoroughly hoped that it would be someone amazingly nice and could share her intelligent interests. That one and only thought remained in her deepest mind and thoughts for what as left at her time at home, leaving her tremendously dreamy all the time. Evidently, though a smart girl like her knew almost every person who attended her school, a girl still has her _Prince Charming_ fantasies.

"Hermione! Are you even listening?"

Someone waved a hand in front of her face and almost immediately annoyance grew inside of her; she hated to be treated like child!

She snapped out of her thoughts at the sharp tone of Harry's voice, raising a strict eyebrow in his direction.

"What?" She asked, quite infuriated to be disturbed so suddenly from her train of thoughts.

"I said. Congratulations on being Head girl! Ginny just told me." He repeated, giving her a stern look before glancing back at a beaming Ginny Weasley, who nodded back enthusiastically.

"Oh. Okay. Thanks." She muttered briefly, feeling a pang of guilt as well as being slightly embarrassed for her previous annoyance towards her best friend.

She took a mental reminder of the other passengers in her carriage, taking quick glances at them in turn. There with her, were her usual group of friends all doing there own thing: Ginny was engaging into a conversation with Luna Lovegood about nargles again (what they may be Hermione definitely would never understand); Neville Longbottom was petting his toad as usual; and unexpectedly, Ronald Weasley, her other best friend, sat opposite her gaping like a lunatic. She sighed to herself, tearing her eyes down to her lap and Harry caught her awkward glimpses.

"Hermione? Are you sure you're alright?" He questioned her; she had been quite, what shall we call it, "off" all day.

She looked up from her lap at everyone in the carriage again, who all stopped what they were doing and gave her the same confused look as Harry, they obviously agreed with him.

"Um, yeah. I'm fine."

She avoided their burning gazes, feeling each smoulder holes into her skin, and turned to look outside, watching as the silhouette of Hogwarts grew slowly larger, she prayed for some kind of escape. She crinkled her nose as if it would help with her thought process.

Lately, she had been somewhat distant to everyone, quite unsociable and unable to concentrate for longer than a span of a few minutes. And she definitely did not accept the option that _it was just all part of growing up_ – that was utter ridiculousness! She hoped that maybe someone could explain why she had been feeling so strange. She was different, she just didn't know how.

Hermione was interrupted once more by a sense of hotness on her, and at that moment she knew they were still looking at her, questioning each other through worried looks and throwing her sneak peeks.

_"Great_."

They were certainly not helping with this, not the slightest bit at all. She begged inwardly for a rescue team.

_What is with the staring? _She thought of saying, or perhaps shouting, to all of them, but she bit her lip so that the harsh words would not be said, after all she still had the decency to hold her tongue at the right time – for minimal trouble making.

Instead, an idea sprang to mind which brought her back into a slightly more cheerful mood, for the first time in a very long period she found herself smirking at her cunning idea.

"Well, I guess I must be going to the Head's carriage now." She said casually and brightly. After exchanging looks again for a brief moment, they all concurred unwillingly, saying their _"good-byes"_ and _"see you laters."_ She returned the greeting, waving to them as she stood up quickly, gathered her belongings and rushed out.

Hermione sighed to herself as she got outside, sliding the door shut behind her. She made sure her breathing was back to normal and that her mind was clear before she continued to make her way towards the back of the train. With any luck, her day would get much better.

With any luck at all.

* * *

Draco remained hypnotized by the view from the window, wishing to himself that someone would save him from turning into a heartless and mean old git – yes, a mean old git. Which, he believed, he was well on his way to becoming. However his pride kept those feelings stomped down, at least for most of the time.

He acknowledged the darkening grey sky above him and leant back into his seat unsatisfied. Before long, his father's patronizing voice entered and echoed in his mind, Draco shook his head in the hopes of shaking the thoughts out too.

"_Can't you do anything right?"_

_"What is to become of you?"_

"_You are not ever good enough to be my son!"_

He felt the tears sting his eyes and he choked them back into his system – Draco Malfoy, will not nor will ever cry in public. Simple as. He cursed loudly, just as suddenly, as the train surged forward harshly, cutting off his thoughts. There was a loud _bang_ as the door of the carriage swung open and few books flung inside, throwing themselves crookedly into almost tearing positions.

Being caught completely off-guard, Draco reached defensively for his wand and looked up just in time to see someone fall into the room with him.

Whoever it was, she cursed as she rubbed the arm that she fell onto, trying to brush away the brown hair that covered her face, she noticed her books around the room, then instantly fixing them back into there original neatness.

When she looked up, Draco gave her an icy stare for being so damn clumsy and also for disturbing his emotion eruption – yet inside he was sort of glad to be saved. Draco was sure there would be no further danger, so he put away his wand steadily and folded his arms across his chest, all the while not keeping his eyes off this girl.

Once she had regained herself, clutching her books across her chest, she locked eyes with him as if instinctively. Draco's cold glare eased as his eyes met with two brown caring ones, this was someone that could save him, and her eyes were so full of life, full of untold love. He took a quick inhale unconsciously, a gasp for air, shocked for coming to any conclusion about someone so quickly. For feeling anything at all.

Emotions were not his sort of thing. Neither were the right words or anything of the sort.

He scanned around at her face, eager to find out who this mystery girl was. He gasped when he saw that those eyes that he had falling into, were owned none other by Hermione Granger. The enemy. A mudblood. The girl who he had tormented for several years.

He tore his eyes away from hers and returned to looking outside, blushing slightly while trying desperately to banish any feelings that he had previously thought, but felt somehow quite saddened to be rid of them so quickly.

He had just got himself, into something he should have never walked into.

* * *

Hermione remained shocked at the intimacy of the moment, her mouth dropped into a full 'O' and she had _not_ just stared into Malfoy's silver, dark eyes and got lost in them. That could _not_ possibly be true… ever.

She tried to shrug off the fact that Malfoy had given her the most heartfelt look she had ever seen in her life, they actually held something of a hope in them. How come she had never noticed this before? She remained plastered on that same spot, standing there like a complete idiot.

She looked down at the floor, then back up at Malfoy who seemed to be avoiding her gaze and then back to the floor, playing with the hem of her shirt as she did so, hoping that perhaps they would erase what she was beginning to feel right now. Hermione stood there, in complete silence, trying frantically to remember why she had come here in the first place.

Cutting off the uncomfortable tension, or conceivably making it worse, Malfoy turned towards her sharply and cast her a disgusted look – back to his usual self.

"Granger, are you lost or something?" He spat out, staring her down.

She did a double take at his sudden change in disposition and finally her thoughts caught up with her. Immediately, she returned to herself and felt the same way she felt for this vile excuse for a boy in front of her.

"Actually, Malfoy, I'm looking for the Head's carriage. It seems that I've been chosen to be Head girl. So perhaps you're the one who's lost." She told him smugly.

"What?!" He said, raising his voice slightly and standing up, showing her his full height. In fact, he had grown a considerable amount over the years, he now towered over, not just mentally but now physically too. She sighed to calm herself.

Hermione looked up at him, so that their faces were inches away from each others, her breath tickling his cheek. His hair flopped easily over his deep eyes; surely he could even pass for cute, she found her gaze travel down to his lips...

_WHAT!! She did not just think that?!"_

She shook her head and took a large step away from him, gasping for air. She stuck out her tongue and almost slapped herself for being crazy, far too crazy for her own good. Hermione found herself laughing stupidly at her mistake – but was it really a mistake?

Draco looked around worriedly, ignoring her weird event before he began attacking her again.

"This must be all wrong! I can't bear to be near you!" He sat down in his seat again with a faint _thump._

"Well, I'm not backing down." She said, putting down her books and crossing her arms over her chest as she sat down opposite to him stubbornly, she had come to the conclusion that this was definitely the Head's carriage. Another sigh escaped her lips: why does nothing turn out the way she wants?

It would have been so much easier if she just met the perfect guy and they had an intelligent chat, fallen in love and whatsoever, instead of meeting this scum and having another well planned, dim-witted argument.

Draco flinched slightly at their closeness.

"Don't come too close mudblood; I fear I might catch a disease if you touch me." He made a silly face and edged away a tad.

"Argh! You heartless twat!" She yelled, losing to him.

"Careful now, Granger. Hold your tongue." He smirked, causing something to poke at Hermione's heart deep inside her. She reached up to touch her chest instantly and noticed the faint pain.

"Oh, do pull your head out of your own ass Malfoy!" She retorted.

"It appears you are the one with a bad temper." He snapped quickly, but the hurt look in his eye didn't go unnoticed by Hermione, who in return felt like saying sorry. This was going too far, as do their arguments.

She decided not to say anymore, she exhaled noisily and sat upright, pulling down her skirt to its fullest length. It was a habit.

They sat there in silence for a few minutes, until Hermione realized that Malfoy was peeking glances at her.

She became rather furious again; she hated to be stared at, for whatever reason.

"What is it Malfoy?" She said, informing him that she knew he was looking.

He looked taken aback and then focused on the window yet again.

"Oh nothing. It's just that…"

"WHAT?"

"Are you aware, Granger, that we have to share the Head's Quarters?"

He made another face at her, he was beginning to remind her of an overgrown child, but a rather cute one at that.

"_ARGH!! Stop that Hermione!"_

"Oh yeah." She whispered to herself, still battling inside.

She looked up and saw him staring again.

"For Merlin's sake, WHAT NOW?" She asked him, fuming.

"Nothing..." He began, "Just stay out of my way Granger." Draco continued in a hateful tone, but looking at her in a strange way that definitely did not spell out the word H-A-T-E.

"No problem." She answered back, so quietly it was barely audible.

They both diverted their gazes to the window again, where Hogwarts was clear in sight.

* * *

Draco looked up from his dinner plate and at the Gryffindor table, trying to drown out the loud noises around him, watching as Hermione got up from her seat smiling.

"_What was she smiling at? Stupid Granger."_

He threw a glance at the Headmaster, who beckoned him to come over.

Without question, he left his barely touched food and made his way towards the staff table, the gazes of the other students and teachers hot on him - whispering their gossips which they had received from their holidays. It appears that the Prince of Slytherin didn't get up to much over the vacation _and _that his father was finally thrown into prison for being found out.

_"Oh, boo hoo, poor Malfoy is a sad loser. Like I bloody care." _

When he arrived, he took a stand next to Hermione, sneaking another quick glance at her before greeting Dumbledore with his trademark Malfoy smirk. The Headmaster, in return gave him a sympathetic look which didn't go too well with Draco – one of the things he hated the most, sympathy.

"Good evening Miss Granger." He nodded in Hermione's direction, "Sir Malfoy." He added shortly.

Without further time wasting, Dumbledore began discussing with them their daily duties and got straight to the point, congratulating them again on being chosen for their posts. He told them briefly what they would need to know and indicated where their Quarters were located (on the fifth floor, just in case you wanted to know), proudly telling them the password, which was "_Adamo_." Draco assumed, that Miss smart-ass would know the meaning of it but was struck when he saw the confused look on her face, obviously of her trying to rack her brains for the meaning too. Perhaps she didn't know everything – he almost laughed.

"And finally," Dumbledore took a slow breath, "If you have any problems, do not hesitate to ask." He gave them both a small weak yet kind smile.

"Thank you sir. But I'm sure we'll be fine." Draco answered before Hermione could say anything for herself, smiling falsely back at their Headmaster.

Hermione took a fleeting look at Draco and turned back to Dumbledore, thanking him again before bidding him a good night. She left hurriedly, as if she was sickened to be in Draco's presence, and was probably off to the Quarters.

Draco felt a virtual punch in the stomach when he saw how quickly she wanted to be away from him, staring at her back as she walked away, a small pain aching in his heart. So he, figured he should follow on to check out his new dormitory too. Making sure he left a few minutes behind, so that it would appear he eager to be with her.

_"Sharing an accommodation with Granger? Ha! This certainly, was going to be interesting…"_

He headed for the fifth floor, raring to go and find out what the Quarters would look like – since they have been rumoured to be somewhat beautifully designed in every way.

It was going to be a longer walk, than he thought it would be. Maybe just some time to clear his head.

* * *

_A/N :_ Hey there! That is my first ever chapter of my first ever Dramione fanfic. It probably needs a lot of updating. I must admit, I am so into _Draco&Hermione_ right now. I find it cute and just... awww_ love_. So anyway if you haven't yet, please read and review. And for those already who have read, thanks for reading the chapter and could you please review? Hehe.. It would make my day, so much since no one is reading this. Well, not many people are. Reviews will be the only reason I continue.

-Fallen11angel


	2. Your Affect On Me

**Keeper**

_Chapter Two_

* * *

Draco left the Great Hall after Hermione, keeping at a slow enough pace just so he wouldn't catch up with her; he was more than ready to escape the blazing eyes of the other students by now. He only quickened his pace, so he could be away from the noises of people talking, laughing, and generally being happier than he was. He couldn't stand it when that happened, made him sick.

He envied every single one of those brats – yes, envied.

_"Damnit."_

He began to slow down once more, when he had turned several corners and was absolutely sure that he was in the silence of his own thoughts, sure that he was alone. He sighed as he stuffed his hands into the depths his jean pockets, one hand steadily taking hold of his hidden wand; a basic instinct that he couldn't be rid of, a basic skill he had mastered over years of insecurity.

Draco decided inwardly to let Hermione be alone up at the quarters for a while, he couldn't bare see her and let his new-found feelings erupt again. Whatever feelings those may be, he was still quite unsure. But he was certain, he did want them to show up again anytime soon, hence he thought avoiding her would help.

Besides, it was probably best if he ventured around for a while, to clear his head and all, it might be good for him. He proceeded towards a nearby courtyard, hoping for some fresh air. Once there, Draco took a seat on a stone bench and buried his head in his hands, leaning forward on his knees as he did so.

He tried to shake Hermione out of his mind. But her face kept returning to him. Her eyes, so understanding, like they could see past his mask; and her lips, so perfectly curved, though she could easily smile around her friends, he had never been able to make her do so…

Draco snorted aloud, "_What was this he was thinking?"_

"_Stupid boy, stop with the fooling around. You contain no feelings for anyone whatsoever."_

He swept a hand through his hair, so that he could see. A chilling breeze met him and caused him to shiver, nevertheless he remained still, unaffected by the cold - or so he pretended to be. He seemed to be torturing himself again, figuring it would be the best thing to do if he thought he did something wrong.

He looked up at the sky, at his blue-moon tinted surroundings and up at the high towers of Hogwarts. He knew _she_ would be in one of those towers somewhere, just going about her business and definitely with better things to do than to think about Draco Malfoy. He took in the beauty of the area, and maintained his locked gaze with the sky above him, as if it were a person in which he could find comfort in. One day, that sky would be the death of him. If that was the case, it would be alright; at least he would be away from all this.

He could try to run away, in the near future, but knowing his father, he would only to be dragged back into his damned life again. Dragged back into this hell, he was forced to call life.

Draco got up, and dug his hands into his pockets once more, another trademark for the "_Prince of Darkness"_. It was about time he went inside before he froze to death, and what's more, it was beginning to get late. It seems, staring at the sky always made the ever organized Malfoy lose track of his valuable time.

* * *

Hermione looked out of her bedroom window once again and at the blue moon outside that sat outside. A harsh wind collided with her window, shaking it a small amount, but she merely ignored it due to its ordinary appearances. She wondered if someone out there was staring at the same beautiful sky as her.

She laughed silently to herself, "_As if that would ever be true_."

Her and her dumb inner- hopeless romantic.

Staring down at her watch, it read 11 o'clock, of course in the evening. She sighed and turned her back to the window, the blue light outlining her elegant figure, where was Malfoy? Surely he should be up by now, right? She could have sworn he was just behind her when she left the Hall. Slightly shocked, she tried to remove any thoughts of him, what in the magical world was going on with her? One moment fuming with hate, the next worried about him!

Just then, she heard a quiet swing of the portrait from downstairs and she decided to check it out. Hurrying down yet trying to keep herself discrete, she entered the common room and caught Malfoy staring around with an amazed look on his face. Surely, it mirrored her face when she first entered the Quarters, its interior was simply amazing and shall we dare say – spell binding.

"Malfoy? Where have you been?" She blurted out, before she could stop herself.

Shocked, Draco turned around at quick speed and sighed only when he saw her standing there in the shadows, at the bottom of the stairs. The last person he wanted to see tonight.

"Granger, I really don't think it's any of your business." He replied calmly, resisting the need to say something cunning.

"Oh right. Yeah." She mumbled, feeling her cheeks warm up. She thanked the dim lighting of the room, and just hoped Draco wouldn't see her blushing. But why should she be blushing? She has no need to be!

They stood there, silently, a discomfited tension building between them, only to be interrupted by Draco shuddering abruptly; he took hold of himself into an embrace to warm himself up, rubbing his arms for friction and warmth.

She gave him a confused look, and realized he was freezing. "_Was he outside all this time?"_

"You're practically solid cold…"

"You got that right."

The silence ensued again; and she heaved a sigh, finally giving up trying to be nice to him. She wasn't ever sure why she was trying to be nice, trying to catch attention and even trying to impress him. There was no need, Draco Malfoy will always be the Draco Malfoy she met in first year – if you understand that.

Draco's face softened as he tried to catch Hermione's eye, tilting his head to the side questioningly.

"Granger? Were you worried about me?" He grunted, laughing a little.

Hermione opened her mouth and then closed it again, she didn't know what to say and if she did, the words decided not to come out and save her.

"I don't know…" She thought aloud, her gaze on her own two feet as they shifted uneasily.

He stopping smiling and became somewhat serious. "_Had he heard her right?"_

"What did you just say?"

"Nothing. It doesn't matter." She replied, flicking her long hair over her shoulders and avoiding eye contact.

"It does matter if you said it." Something inside him wanted to hear what she had said again, to know more about her, he took a step closer to her unexpectedly.

She looked, to some extent, a little scared and turned away from him.

"Good night Malfoy." She said quickly before going back (or more like running) upstairs to her room.

_"That was a rather fast and intense conversation."_ Draco though to himself.

He stared at the spot she had been standing in, the words she spoke echoing in his mind replacing that of his fathers – which was a complete joy - and he heard the far-off slam of her door. Once it was still, he let out a deep breath, as if he had been holding it for all this time. His heart ached a little at her absence but he refused to let it consume him.

He left shortly in search for his bedroom; going up the stone staircase, he found it down the corridor to Hermione's. As he closed the door softly behind him, and fell back onto his bed, he threw his robe off, longing for some space to breathe. His chest ached for something, but he didn't know what he wanted, which was a change.

It was impossible to erase her from his brain, she was always there somehow. He didn't even know why she was there, she just was. Just there.

"_What a bloody start to the year."_

"_GODDAMNIT!"_ He was on the verge of screaming.

He couldn't forget the worried look in her eye, she was worried about him! Of all people! And she had blushed too!

"_How ridiculous!"_

He, Draco Malfoy, could not ever have feelings for Granger, for a filthy mudblood. It was in no way possible.

He closed his eyes, desperate to get some peace.

He had ever thought anything of her before, so why start now? Right?

"_Hermione, what are you doing to me?"_

At that sudden moment, all he could think about was how he liked the sound of her name on his lips. Seems like the Draco Malfoy that we all know and love has changed – but is it for the better?

* * *

"GRANGER!"

Someone began to beat on her bedroom door, like it was a punching bag or something of that sort.

"FOR THE LOVE OF THE ENTIRE MAGICAL WORLD! GET OFF YOUR ASS AND WAKE UP!" Draco's voice yelled from outside her door.

She got up slowly and groggily, shielding her eyes from the bright sunlight that seeped through her deep red curtains.

"HERMIONE!"

She became fully awake when she heard Malfoy scream her first name. Rubbing her eyes again, she went and walked over towards the source of ever disruptive noise.

"GRANGER! MY GOD!"

There was another angry thump on her door before she hastily opened it and Draco fell inside – undoubtedly leaning on her door beforehand.

"What the-?" Hermione asked. She glanced at Draco full-on face in the floor and couldn't help but smile, perhaps even laugh a little.

"Well, isn't it the Slytherin Prince…" She announced, rolling her eyes and stepping over him to get to the other side of the room.

Draco looked up from where he was; feeling his head for any bumps, and saw Hermione standing over him, hands on his hips, laughing like there was no tomorrow.

"Bloody hell! It took you a half hour to get up!" He said, getting to his feet unsteadily, his knees shaky whether if it was from the fall or because he saw Hermione – he wouldn't know.

"Well, I'm sor-ry!" She said sarcastically, throwing up her hands in mock defeat.

"DAMNIT GRANGER DON'T PLAY THE FOOL!" He yelled at her, angry at her early morning games.

She took a step back, and inspected him suspiciously; he obviously had not gotten a lot of sleep over the last few days, probably had a lot on his mind or was catching up on the endless piles of homework their professors had set for them to do. "Someone has a short fuse." She stated.

"Yeah. So what!"

She rolled her eyes again, beginning to get annoyed with his tone of voice.

"What do you want Malfoy?" She asked seriously, wishing he would get to the point already.

"Dumbledore's got a job for us." He said as-a-matter-of-factly.

"Right." Hermione nodded.

"So?" He enquired impatiently.

"Just give me a few minutes." She told him, giving him a small push on the chest so that he would get out of her room and shutting the door in his face without so much of a polite farewell.

His heart stopped momentarily at the sudden contact. Smiling, he reached to where she had placed her hand previously. It was apparent, that she didn't know how much she affected him. And that was a _lot._

Despite how he detested growing to like her, he did it anyway. Couldn't stop it, so he just let it be.

Over the previous nights, what he felt was just a beginning to his emotions. Now, he has starting to do something about them, even without knowing.

He turned and headed back downstairs, feeling much less deprived of sleep and overall much better.

* * *

The door creaked, as Draco put his hand to it and gave it a firm push. He and Hermione walked out onto the stone stairway while it slowly rolled down onto the empty corridor.

"Was that it?" He yelled childishly when they got outside.

Draco scratched his head as he and Hermione walked out of Dumbledore's office.

Hermione laughed at the bewildered look on his face, slightly surprising Draco.

"A Ball?" He asked, turning to her.

"That's what Dumbledore said." She replied, laughing aloud again.

"But what am I supposed to know about organizing a ball?"

"And you think I know how to organize one?" She questioned.

"Well you're the smart one."

She stopped in her tracks. Draco walked on a bit before realizing that she wasn't by his side, he then spun around to look for her.

He raised an eyebrow.

"You just called me smart." She said.

"It's a compliment.. from you!" She continued when he stared at her blankly.

"Yeah. Don't think anything of it." He shrugged and walked on.

Hermione smiled and ran after him; somthing inside changed, she was beginning to take a strange liking to him. Maybe he was softening up, or maybe it was just a whole new side of Malfoy that she had never seen before.

When she caught up with him, he looked over at her from the corner of his eye and thought of something to say.

"Don't think that I'm going to be nice to you just because... we have to talk now."

"Okay." She said, still smiling.

_"Would she ever stop grinning?"_ He sighed.

"So, where are you going?" Draco said, breaking the empty silence.

"Er, breakfast. Why?"

"Nothing. Just wanted to know."

She stopped walking again.

"Granger, what now?"

She looked incredibly puzzled.

"Hello?" He said, clicking his fingers in her face.

"Are you feeling alright Malfoy?"

"Yeah. Wh-?" He gasped as Hermione placed a hand on his forehead, to check if he had a fever or something.

He wanted to take hold of her hand in his, but instead he flinched and took a quick step back.

"Ergh, Granger. I understand you can't keep your hands of me, but watch where you put them." He told her mischievously.

"But you're being so nice."

"So what?"

"It's strange."

"And?"

"Why?"

"Because."

Hermione sighed, "Sometimes I wonder what's wrong with you?"

He laughed, "I think exactly the same thing about you."

She found herself laughing with him before she walked ahead into the hall and took a seat at the Gryffindor table by her usual friendship group.

Draco too, made his way towards his house table, without keeping his eyes off her.

He was only interrupted when he sat down, by Pansy grabbing onto his arm and trying to kiss him.

_"This was not the time."_

He had taken a great comfort in her for all these years, he felt she was the only person who could love him, even if it was false pretense. But recently he had been a bit "off" with her, always feeling disgusted by her going away with all the guys she could get, when usually and previously he didn't mind at all. It was absurd, it was like he was going soft.

Things had changed.

He didn't want her anymore.

Draco drew his eyes away from the Gryffindor table and looked at Pansy.

She twirled a blonde strand of hair around her finger, and gave him her "supposedly-cute" pout, begging him to hang out with her for the day.

He tried to push her away from him, which shocked everyone at the Slytherin table; and he also obtained a few gasps from the other house tables.

It appeared, the Slytherin King and Queen were having another break up. Everyone's eyes turned to the two of them.

"Draccy? What's up?" She whined, trying to latch onto him again.

"Pansy, just piss off."

She, and everyone else in the hall, looked extremely stunned. She took a deep breath, as if she was about to cry. Draco, simply ignored her, he knew that she would just be off with some other guy later on in the day anyway. He was only a fill-in until she could find a worthy victim.

She scooted over to sit with some other girls when she got no reaction from him, pretending that nothing at all had just happened to humiliate her entirely. Draco sighed inwardly, trying to concentrate on eating. But he didn't have the stomach for any of it.

A whole lot of whispers blew up around the hall, ringing in his ears until they hurt. He had just become the top gossip of the day, "_how wonderful."_

He looked up from the floor and at the Gryffindor table, where he heard the loudest amount of laughing from the "_Potty"_ and his God damned group of friends. Hermione, however, was trying to either stop them or be away from them, but they wouldn't listen to her.

He cast them a cold glare, but then his eyes met with Hermione's, who gave him an apologetic gaze.

She had no reason to apologize, for them or herself.

Things were taking a turn for the worse, and even better, he didn't know what in the name of God was wrong with him.

He took one last glance at Hermione, before getting up and leaving the hall for some air. He couldn't take it all any longer.

* * *

Hermione watched as he left, and the whispers about him grew louder now that he was gone.

She knew that Harry making jokes about him would certainly hurt and do no good for anyone. Though he may have a tough coating, he was just as vulnerable on the inside.

Hermione had a mental debate with herself about whether she should go or not, in the end she followed her heart.

She hurried after him, unaware that everyone was now looking at her.

Things certainly would turn in the opposite direction.

She could no longer act like she was unaffected.

* * *

_A/N :_ So there you all go, chapter two is now up for those of you who actually care. As I have said many times previously, please review and tell me what you absolutely think. Be honest, not rude. I will promise to update whenever I can and again please review. I'm not really sure, if I'm doing a good enough job of this. I can assure you, that it does get better and hopefully my writing will improve too. I'm going to go now, not sure why, but I will. Ta-ta for now!

Enjoy it while you can!

-Fallen11angel


	3. You And Me

**Keeper**

_Chapter Three_

_Decidated To Anna_

* * *

Hermione walked hurriedly out into the empty corridor, looking in both directions, hoping to find out which way Draco went. But he wasn't in sight.

She sighed, as she walked around the hallways blindly and without a single clue about where to go. She looked worriedly for any sign of him.

She strolled on, until the sounds of the students in the Hall could no longer be heard, and it was almost eerily silent. She carried on, until something caught her eye. A passageway which she had never come across before, it looked unused and abandoned.

Curious, Hermione headed down the passageway, and towards a large door at the end. Dark shadows followed her as she passed by dirty windows with warm sunlight passing through them and causing sleepy cobwebbed portraits to awake from their slumbers.

Sure that it was another dead end, yet willing to check out the area; she placed a hand on the old oak door and gave it a small push. Once it opened, a gust of cold air rushed in along with more sunlight and the sound of birds from outside. She felt calmer, except it didn't last long, for she saw Draco sitting outside on a bench. With his back to her, and his head in his hands; he was a little far off but she knew.

She knew it was him.

Hermione took a deep inhale and stepped outside, drawing her jumper closer around her in the cold. She remained glued to the spot as she battled with herself mentally; now that she had found him, she had no idea what to do or say. One part of her wanted to turn and just leave him there. The other part, wanted to go to him and make sure he would be alright.

Eventually, she took another step towards him but then stopped again. Staring at him, she wondered if there was anything she could possibly do to help. Hermione wanted to reach out, put her arms around him and tell him things would get better. However, she wasn't sure if she could do it, she wasn't sure how he would react.

"I know you're there." He said quietly, not even turning around and causing Hermione to jump.

She took this is as a chance and went over to him gradually, sitting next to him when she arrived. Making sure, she wasn't too close or too far away from him.

She continued to stare, unable to take her eyes away from him, she absorbed every detail of the moment.

Draco sat up, dropping his hands onto his lap and lifting up his head. He turned to look at her, and for a moment their eyes locked.

"What are you doing here?" He asked, almost inaudibly.

"Um... I just wanted to see if you were alright." She replied just as softly, afraid to say the wrong thing.

"So, are you?"

The silence continued a while longer before Draco spoke.

"I'm fine." He spat out, somewhat fiercely.

"That's good." She said, trying to force a smile but she failed.

A wall grew between them, and the silence grew once more.

"Granger, you know that's complete crap."

She gasped, shocked by his words, and she felt herself getting quite irritated.

"Well, I actually was checking to see if I could help. Is it so bad for someone to see if you're okay?" Hermione felt her cheeks burning up.

His eyes widened before he exhaled profoundly and cast his gaze to the floor.

"It's not like we're supposed to be friends or anything, because we're not. So why bother?" Draco answered, his finger tracing the sewing's of his shirt.

"Because I want to. I felt like it." She said, raising her voice, hoping that it might get into that thick skull of his.

He was obviously frustrated, his anger building silently inside him, because he suddenly started to yell at her, fists clenched and presently ready to punch something.

"Well, don't worry. Alright? It's not like I'm worth caring about, am I?" He said, furiously.

"How do you know that?" She retorted, and becoming quite scared of him.

"I said don't. It's because of mudblood's like you, that- ergh! I bloody hate you all. I hate you. I don't mean anything to anyone, I don't mean anything to you-" He shouted, only stopping when he saw Hermione flinch and he knew he had gone too far.

He felt a pang of guilt inside him and he drew back; she didn't deserve to be yelled at, especially since his anger wasn't really because of her. He was just taking it out on her, it wasn't fair.

They were silent again, Hermione staring at the stone bench they were sitting on and Draco looking at her.

She turned to him, opening her mouth but then closing it again. She sighed and stood up; Draco looked at her, confused and culpable alike.

"Sorry I bothered you." She whispered.

She turned to walk away, tears watering in her eyes but he got to his feet quickly and grabbed her arm, frightened to let her get away. Hermione struggled a little before turning back to look at him, her tears ready to fall down her cheeks.

* * *

"I'm so sorry, that wasn't fair." He started to say, a hand reaching up to wipe away her tears but he couldn't bring himself to do it and she twisted her head away. She began to cry.

And she didn't want him to see.

"I didn't mean any of it." He continued.

Hermione, made one last attempt to get her arm back from Draco, and eventually he let her go. His heart was, to some extent, broken.

She staggered back, to be away from him. Then, running away with her head in her hands, and bumping harshly into Blaise before taking off again, totally ignoring him.

Blaise rubbed his arm, before looking at Draco and smirking.

Draco swore at himself for being so incredibly stupid and hot-headed. He didn't mean to say any of it; he certainly did not hate her. In fact it was beginning to be quite the opposite.

"Hey, good going with Granger." Blaise said, giving Draco a pat on the back and tearing him out of his thoughts.

He pulled back, and looked at him distastefully.

"What? I'm just trying to say, you finally got her to crack. Well done. I'm sure your father would be proud."

Draco cringed, and felt a growing hatred towards his family, towards anything Slytherin and related to his life.

"Shut up."

"Why?" Blaise asked, confused.

"Just shut up Blaise."

"No."

"It's you and my bloody family, that's what's wrong with me!"

"What are you even on about mate?" He said, raising an eyebrow.

"Granger, she's crying because of me. I didn't mean it. Just-"

"So what, she's just a filthy mudblood." He interrupted, before pulling a face, "It's disgusting." Blaise continued.

Draco felt a swell of anger within him; he grabbed Blaise by the collar and gave him a hateful glare. "Don't you dare call her that."

"Wh- what's wrong with you?" He asked feebly, throwing up his hands in defeat.

"I'm a freaking mess, that's what!" He let go of Blaise, shoving him backwards as he did it. As he staggered backwards he attempted to fix his uniform.

"Well, that's who you are."

Draco pushed the hair out of his eyes and made his way inside, roughly moving Blaise out of the way as he went.

"Hey! Draco, where the hell are you going now?" He called after him.

"I'm going to apologize."

He began walking slowly, and then starting into a run to the fifth floor, wishing that Hermione would be in the privacy of their own dormitory so they could talk. He severely wished that she would accept whatever attempt of an apology he might give.

Draco really had made a real mess of things, not that years of torture had helped in her growing dislike towards him, but this time it was different. A lot different. If there was one person in the world he would want to mend things with, it would be her.

She was the only one who could possibly care.

* * *

Hermione sat in the comfort of the large armchair and brought her knees up to under her chin. She dried her damp face with her jumper sleeve and buried her face, wrapping her arms around her legs.

That was exactly what she didn't want to happen. She knew he was angry but not that much. She held back another surge of tears as she recalled the way he told her that he hated her.

Of all the times that he had said it or shown it through his actions, that was the only time that she felt it sting.

Hermione had only cried in front of him because she was confused. One minute he was yelling at her, the next he was saying sorry and it was truly believable. The moment she had heard him apologize, she wanted to believe him. But she couldn't, she was too bewildered to think straight and she knew that Blaise was coming. He would only make things worse.

Hermione brushed the hair off her face and rested her head on her knees again, watching as the flames in the fireplace flickered mutely over the wood.

She took one last deep breathe before she was satisfied that she was calm and completely back to normal. She tried to rid any thoughts of Draco away from her mind.

As if on direct cue, she heard the portrait swing open from behind her and her heart began to race knowing that Draco was now there. Things were complicated. She didn't want to talk to him. Not yet.

Instinctively, Hermione turned around and there he was; standing a few metres away from her and he actually looked sorry. His eyes met hers and after a few seconds she tore them away, revolving back to her original position. She heard his faint footsteps and suddenly he was standing directly in front of her.

She let out a gasp at his sudden appearance, yet still trying desperately to avoid him. Draco saw this, and sighed to himself.

"The silent treatment huh?" He smiled weakly at her, but she didn't see.

Draco sat down beside her and leaned in, so that they were quite close. Hermione continued to look anywhere but at him, yet she almost took reassurance in the fact that she could feel his warm breath on her.

"Granger, I'm really sorry about what happen earlier. I was angry and I really didn't mean anything that said to you." He began to say, and when he was met with an empty silence he continued.

"Despite what you think, I certainly do not hate you. I just want you to know that. And I apologize again." He took a deep breathe after he finished and leaned back, giving her some space.

Hermione unhurriedly, turned to look at him and he smiled at her.

But she still stayed quiet.

Draco felt like, though she wasn't talking to him, that she was the only one who would listen and understand him.

"I know you're not paying attention."

Hermione, with her head and hands still on her knees, looked up and her eyes found his again.

"Or maybe you are." He said as she nodded.

"Basically, I don't want to be an evil twat, or a damn death eater or anything of the sort. To be honest, I actually want to be a better person." He waited for her to say something, but she remained hushed, yet still maintaining eye contact.

"It's just that, my bloody father is driving me mad, he won't let me go. Always pushing me to be something I don't want to be and, now that he's in Azkaban it's even worse. Don't get me started on my mother. I can't even look at her; I don't even know who she is. So, though you may think I'm one thing, I'm actually not. There's more to me that you could possibly think. And believe it or not, you're the only person I trust. The only bloody person I feel I can talk to, and your not even talking to me-"

Hermione made a sudden movement and took his hand, stopping Draco abruptly from his "emotional speech." Her eyes looked sad, but she smiled weakly at him.

Draco, looked down at their hands held together, and then back up at Hermione's face, he returned the smile, feeling his cheeks getting somewhat hotter.

He entwined his fingers with hers as the moments of silence waltzed by.

"So, are you talking to me now? I mean, I just told you my whole bloody life story." He said, breaking the ice.

Hermione looked up from their hands, blushing.

"I guess I'm going to have to, aren't I? I can't have you turning into an 'evil twat'" She quoted him, laughing a little.

"Listen, I'm really sorry. And believe me, that's the last time you're going to hear me say it."

Hermione nodded, squeezing his hand faintly, "Well, apology accepted."

Draco smirked at her, and waved his blonde hair away from his eyes.

"We can be friends, right?" He said distantly.

"I don't exactly see any rules that say we can't be." She answered, after a while of thinking.

"Alright, so, um… truce. You know, a clean slate and all." He said, letting go of her hand momentarily and holding it out for her to shake.

"Truce." Hermione told him, beaming.

She extended her hand to shake with his, but then stopped mid way causing Draco looked down at his hand, feeling confused. He suddenly got the wind knocked out of him as Hermione enclosed the space between them through a tight hug.

Her hands were draped around his neck, and her head rested against his. Draco stared wide eyed for an instant, not sure how to react. But then he let himself go, and wrapped his arms around her waist, returned the hug and smiling to faintly himself.

"I knew there was some good in you." He heard her whisper.

"I guess there is."

"You know, this is absolutely crazy." Hermione said quietly, drawing back a little so that she could look him in the eye.

He smiled at her, "Yeah, I never thought in a million years that I would hug you." Draco teased.

Hermione hit him lightly on the arm and broke the hug, sitting back down beside him on the chair.

"I never thought I would hug you either." She told him, as she looked down at the floor.

She blushed, after just unexpectedly realizing that what she had done. Hermione turned to him and looked quite worried.

"Oh my God, I'm really sorry, I didn't mean to hug you or anything, Oh my-" She began to explain through a rampage of babbling.

"Hey, hey!" Draco raised his voice over hers, waving a hand in front of her face.

"Don't worry about it." He paused, before shrugging and finishing his sentence.

"It was actually kinda nice."

* * *

_A/N :_ There it is, well I can't say anything more apart from please, please, pretty please read and review. And by the way that was not begging, it was a bit more like pleading. Tell me what you think of the story. Anyways, I wrote this for Anna, who is my good friend/classmate because I was having extreme writers block and I had no idea what the hell to write. So she gave me a few pointers, ehem the fight and make-up, and I used them. Well, she was a fan of the story, she didn't want it to just stop. Yeah, shes cool. Thanks buddy!

Definitely saved by the bell! - I have no idea why I wrote that.

-Fallen11angel


	4. One Wish Sweet, Limited Edition

**Keeper**

_Chapter Four _

_Dedicated To Charlotte_

* * *

Hermione grabbed a piece of toast as she sat down on the Gryffindor table, biting into it as her friends all greeted her a 'good morning'. She smiled at each one of them between stuffing her mouth with food and gulping down juice. This weekend was the Hogsmeade trip, and everyone apart from Hermione had remembered about it.

I mean, yeah, she had the permission slip and everything; but her mind had much more interesting things to think and dream about.

She rubbed her eyes to try and rid herself of any sleepiness; seeing as her and Draco had spent the whole night up, surprisingly, just talking. Hermione smiled as she thought back to the previous night.

However, she had only been able to find out about the trip when Draco told her on their way out of the common room.

Thinking of him, Hermione looked up momentarily from her food to the Slytherin table. She scanned the faces of each student and her heart sank when she couldn't find Draco; perhaps he was one of the few students who had already left.

She let out a sigh and resumed cramming the remainder of breakfast into her mouth. Since her friends had already finished earlier, and were now just waiting for her.

Once Hermione had stopped eating they got up from their seats, cheering in relief, and made their way out of the castle, all extremely eager to get out somewhere. Hermione, being left behind, ran after them, trying to catch up and wrapping her scarf around her neck as she did so.

Finally, she caught them just as they exited the Grand doors. Hermione walked next to Ginny, her heavy breaths vanishing into steamy vapour before her. They walked carefully on the icy path towards the town, all getting into loud conversations about their busy few weeks at school, which they felt had sped by.

Hermione laughed along with them, happy to be part of the group, but inwardly missing a certain someone who she had not seen much at all today.

She threw a swift glance over at Harry and Ginny as they held hands; Hermione smiled at them, wishing she had someone of her own, feeling the pang of someone's absence again.

Probably, only just seeing the couple too, Ron looked over at Hermione and snorted to himself.

_"Everyone was bloody in love and he still had no one." _

Well, that was about to change.

* * *

Draco sat under a snowy willow tree, stretching his legs into the snow. He hoped that he was perfectly unseen and when he was sure of it, he exhaled deeply. He took out a small piece of parchment from his pocket and traced the rough texture of it with his hands.

It was a brief letter from his mother which he had received during breakfast. A much unexpected one at that, and it had ruined his whole day, though it had barely even started. Once Draco had skimmed through it quickly, he felt like punching someone, so he then left for Hogsmeade in a hurry.

So that he could be alone.

He re-read the letter a few times before the message actually sunk in. When he had finished reading through it for the last time, he tore it up angrily and threw the remnants of it aside. But the words still stuck into his mind.

_"Dear Son, _

_I'm very sorry, but I won't be home for the Christmas holidays this year. It seems your Aunt Bellatrix is having some trouble at the moment, so I'm off to help. No one will be home so I'm not sure if you would want to come back or not. _

_Miss you dearly, _

_Your mother, Narcissa Malfoy"_

Swearing aloud, he brushed a hand crossly through his hair and felt a further hate towards his family. That was the problem, they were never around to actually see or care.

Resting his head back on the stump of the willow, he held back a tear and toughened up. Her letter did not even hold any elements of love in it, it was just short, brief and perfectly to the point.

Formal and emotionless, likewise for the rest of his family.

He straightened up suddenly, as soon as he heard an eruption of laughter from nearby. Looking over to where the sound had come from, Draco saw Hermione and some other people joking around.

They were all crowding around Harry freaking Potter so that they could hear what he had to say.

He saw Harry's lips move from a distance, obviously saying something, before they all broke into a furious fit of laughter again.

Draco couldn't hold back a surge of jealousy at the sight of them and thanked the drooping branches of the tree for providing him with shelter.

He threw them each an icy stare; his eyes lingering on Hermione for a while longer than the rest before he tore them away. She seemed somewhat less happy than the others, her eyes were caught in a slight daze and a small frown began to play on her lips. Soon enough, she dismissed herself from the group and walked off away from them. He then saw what was left of the cheerful group enter into Honeydukes Sweetshop, followed by the ginger-weasel boy.

Draco took a look sideways to check if anyone was watching before he got to his feet and he also made his way towards the colourful shop, hoping to stumble upon something of interest to him.

Maybe later he would find Hermione and-

Well, he didn't really know.

* * *

Ron stepped into the warmth of the Sweetshop, shivering to try and rid himself of any coldness that was left in him. As soon as he saw the tremendous variety in candy and bright assortments, his eyes bolted around the room with great amazement.

There, before him, lay shelves and shelves covered to the last brim with sweets. There were ones that moved, ones that exploded and even ones that turned your tongue into funny colours. He smiled to himself as he recognized the Chocolate Frogs, Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans, Fizzing Whizzbee's and Blood Lollipops. To be honest, any sweet that you could possibly imagine was there in front of him.

A crowd of enthusiastic students inspected the shop for anything to buy and he too began to search the room rapidly, before he darted off to grab handfuls of whatever he could find.

Once he had a great pile of candy stacked in his arms, he scanned the store one last time to see if he had missed anything. Suddenly, he caught a glimpse of something from the corner of his eye and turned to face it.

He almost drooled when his beady eyes met with the most beautifully decorated sign he had ever seen or read in his life! It said, _"Honeydukes Sweetshop gladly presents to you… The sweet that can grant you ONE wish! Limited Edition, while stocks last!" _

Ron let out a childish gasp and dropped all of the sweets that he had managed to collect, creating a large pile of them at his feet. His eyes wandered down below the sign and there, wrapped perfectly was a piece of candy sitting on a shelf.

Ron almost heard it calling out his name, or maybe that was someone actually saying hello.

Anyway, even better yet, there was still one left. One left just for him!

He hurried over to it, his eyes on watch for any other claimers, and tripping over his own feet a few times on the way there.

Clumsy Ron.

When Ron arrived there, his eyes widened as he stared in wonder at the 'glorious' candy that sat before him, he reached out an eager hand to grab it but was interrupted mid-way by someone knocking into him.

Ron fell to the floor just as the same person tripped over him, showering him in a heap of sweets. He rubbed the back of his head in a frustrated manner, while he quickly recovered and stood up.

"Oi! Why don't you watch where you're-" He said, turning to the person who had bumped into him. Ron only stopped when saw a girl sitting on the floor in front of him, she looked up and blushed a little.

She wore jeans and a blue jacket, her wavy brown hair tied into a loose-hanging ponytail with a green ribbon. He looked into her eyes, which were deep brown and she quickly diverted her gaze elsewhere.

He felt bad since he was about to shout at her; so he outstretched a hand offering to help her get up.

For a second, she stared from the candy-covered floor up to his hand and then back down again. She shrugged and ignored Ron's helping hand as she began to recollect all of the treats that she had dropped.

Ron blushed and drew back his hand, feeling slightly embarrassed.

It's not like he's never had girl trouble of the sort before, but he actually had a good feeling about this.

He turned his back to her as she got up, in her arms a mountain of candy, and looked over to the One Wish sweet that he was about to take for himself.

Ron looked around for any takers before he resumed his action, going in for the sweet, and opening his hand to seize it. But the girl, who was obviously thinking exactly alike to him, did the same thing.

Both their eye's widened as they accidentally took hold of the other's hand, they turned to each other and their eyes met. It was only for a split second, though it felt much longer.

Ron forced a stupid-looking smile, causing the girl to come back to her senses, she turned a cute shade of pink and let go of his hand.

"Oh, I'm really sorry about that. You can have it." She mumbled shyly, pointing to the sweet.

"No, no! You have it." He replied, picking it up and placing it gently on the top of pile that she cradled in her arms.

She laughed a little, "I really insist, you take it." She shifted uneasily trying to keep hold of her sweets, taking his hand and putting the small piece of candy on the palm of it.

Ron closed his hand, as if to treasure the sweet and he watched as the girl walked off, paying for her treats before she left the store. He felt his heart stop beating shortly when he saw her turn for one last glance at him, the next thing he knew she was gone.

Ron's heart sank as he saw her leave, so he ran hastily to the shopkeeper and threw a few Galleons at the counter when he finally found some in the depths of his jean pockets.

He felt a need to know her, and an urge to spend more time with her.

Ron paced out of the shop into the chilling winter morning and found that she wasn't too far ahead.

The streets of Hogsmeade lay half empty and icy, not yet at its busiest point in the day.

"Hey!" He yelled, running after her and dodging past some people who stood in the way.

"Excuse me!" He shouted, after finally catching up and placing a hand on her shoulder.

She jumped in shock and spun around quickly to see who it was. She both smiled and blushed when she saw it was Ron.

"Oh, hello again." She said quietly, looking at the floor.

"Hi." He answered, considerably out of breath.

She giggled at the state of him, "Um, are you okay?"

He merely nodded as he tried to regain himself. Ron took one last profound inhale before turning back to her.

"I just wanted to know…" He paused and she looked at him, as if telling him to go on.

"W-what's your name?" He continued, trying to catch her eye.

She beamed, and then fiddled a little with her hair, she remained quiet for so long that Ron began to think she was never going to tell him.

"It's Charlotte." She replied sweetly, causing Ron to grin like an idiot.

"Charlotte, that's cool. By the way, I'm-" He began to say, but Charlotte disrupted him.

"Ronald Weasley, I know who you are." She finished his sentence for him and then laughed.

"You do?" Asked Ron, confused.

"Who doesn't?" She said shrugging her shoulders.

"Oh right, yeah." He answered, remembering Harry and the stuff that he had done.

"Well, I must be going." Charlotte told him, breaking the awkward silence and trying to avoid the fact that he was gaping open-mouthed at her.

There was another short pause before Ron stood in front of her and blocked her path.

"No, not yet. Don't go."

For an instant she looked taken aback, but then her expression eased.

Another unspoken silence drifted by before Ron remembered something that lay hidden in his closed hand.

"Oh yeah!" He beamed at her as he held out his hand.

Charlotte looked up from the floor to his outstretched arm. She smiled to herself when she saw the One Wish sweet.

She shook her head in disapproval, "I can't take it. It's yours."

But then, there was a faint 'snap' as Ron took hold of the little sweet and broke it into half. Charlotte gasped when Ron threw one of the halves in his mouth.

He smiled at her again, and held out the other half for her to take.

"Go on Charlotte, make a wish." He said, with his mouth full.

Charlotte giggled as she took it from him, put it into her own mouth and closed her eyes to make her wish.

Ron watched her before he too shut his eyes and made his wish.

There was a lingering absence of words while the two thought of something to wish for; they were unaware that they both really wanted the same thing. Opening their eyes, both of them saw a few white snowflakes fluttering down from the sky.

Charlotte looked up in amazement and laughed at the falling snow, Ron gazed at her as she did so.

"Um, thanks Ron." She whispered to him, tearing her eyes away from the sky and looking at him.

"It's alright." He paused as he thought of something to say.

Ron leaned in abruptly so that their faces almost touched and he whispered back to her, "I hope your wish come's true."

He said it so nervously through stutter, but she thought it was sweet of him.

Charlotte looked into his eyes and could almost feel his warmth breath on her skin. She smiled up at him and inwardly hoped that her wish really would come true.

Actually, she hoped that both of their wishes would come true, whatever they may be.

* * *

Draco breathed out a heavy cloud of steam as he walked by the bright light shops of Hogsmeade, tossing a small piece of candy up and down in his gloved hand.

He stopped all of a sudden, grabbing the sweet tightly and stuffing his hands into his pockets when he saw Hermione walking towards him, an aged book tucked under her arm.

She was staring at the snowflakes as they fell from the sky and she smiled faintly to herself at the sight of it.

Draco stood in front of her when she was near enough to him, he spoke out.

"Hey Granger. What's with the tyrannic book?"

Hermione jumped, shocked by the tone of Draco's voice. Her eyes came to contact with his and he smirked.

"It's just a book."

"For what?"

"My personal reading." She answered, to the point.

Draco nodded but then made a face at the book again.

"What? Don't you read, Malfoy?" She asked him.

He stopped making faces and thought for a second.

"Yeah, but not books as ugly as that." He retorted, back to his usual annoying self.

"It is not ugly!" Hermione gasped, hugging the book closely like it had feelings.

"You shouldn't judge a book by its cover!" She continued, trying to sound smart when she was clearly getting upset.

Draco laughed aloud and took a step closer to her.

"Calm down Granger. I was just kidding." He said, placing a hand on her arm.

She immediately composed herself at his touch, refusing to let her feelings show. Hermione sighed and Draco frowned at her.

"You wanna go for a drink?" He told her.

Hermione looked around suspiciously before turning back to him.

"But people will see us together." She replied, in a stage whisper.

Draco laughed again, she looked somewhat ridiculous.

"So what?"

Hermione gasped again, "You mean, you actually don't care."

"If I did, I wouldn't be standing here in front of you." He said in-a-matter-of-fact kind of way.

She nodded and followed him into The Three Broomsticks, where many of the Hogwarts students were spending their day.

Hermione shivered unconsciously as nervousness began to attack her body; she saw Harry and some of the others gathered around the usual table that they sat on. All apart from Ron, she wondered where he had gone off to.

She glanced over at Draco as he got to the door of the building; he opened the door, letting warm air rush out into the cold. He stopped, noticing the people inside and shrugged before turning to look at Hermione.

"You sure you wanna go? Your friends are in there." He said, so that only she could hear.

"Yeah, I'm sure." She said before she could stop herself.

He nodded in return and let her go first, resting his hand on her back as she walked by. He followed her closely, his hands lingering on her for a second too long but she almost melted into him. His touch burned her yet she wanted something more.

His hand slid across her waist as he left her and sat on a table causing Hermione to exhale the breath that she had been holding in.

Hermione stood there for a minute or so before she actually sat opposite him and was sure that she had recovered from that incident.

He was really starting to affect her and she was beginning to think about him more and more each day.

Though they still called each other by surnames, there was something going on between them, they just couldn't admit it to themselves yet.

She smiled weakly and saw that Draco looked quite saddened by something.

"Hey, what's wrong?" Hermione said, causing him to look up suddenly.

"Well, I'm staying at school for Christmas. No one's going to be home anyway." He answered, placing his chin on his propped up arm.

"Oh really? I'm really sorry…Draco." She resisted taking hold of his hand and ignored the fact that she had just called him by his first name.

Draco was comforted by the sound of his name from Hermione and almost smiled; it appeared she hadn't realized she had said it.

"And there's something else." He said, almost inaudibly with all the noise.

Draco dug into his pocket and took out a small, colourfully wrapped sweet. Hermione gasped in recognition.

"Wow! The One Wish sweet!" She looked from his hand to his face, open-mouthed.

"Yeah, but I don't know what to wish for."

Hermione shut her mouth and began to think.

"Why the hell did you buy it then?" She asked, puzzled.

"Cause I wanted it." He replied feebly, causing Hermione to giggle.

"Well then, wish for the first thing that pops into your mind right now." She informed him.

Hermione watched as Draco sighed and stared out of the window into the busying street outside, then turning back to her.

"I wish that I would have someone to stay with me over Christmas." He mumbled.

Hermione raised an eyebrow at what he said but then softened when she realized the reason behind it. She felt extremely sorry for him.

Draco laughed a little, breaking the silence, "It won't come true now, because I've just told you."

It wasn't a very happy laugh, it sounded more miserable yet he was trying to hide it. Hermione felt more touched and wanted to cheer him up.

She sparked up when she thought of a sudden idea.

"It can come true." She said, her voice rose.

Draco looked at her like she was going crazy.

"What?"

"I'll stay with you over Christmas." She blurted out.

Draco's eyes widened in shock before a smirk played on his lips.

"Really? You'll stay with me?"

"Yeah, I will." She answered, feeling surer of herself.

"Alright then." He said, more to himself than to her.

"Listen, you don't deserve to be alone." Hermione said trying to cheer him up and leaning towards him unconsciously.

"Thanks…um, Hermione." He replied, smiling at her.

She returned the gesture and smiled back at him.

Perhaps wishes do come true for some people.

But little did anyone know, Draco didn't really wish for that.

He felt a slight emotion of joy inside him as he glanced over at Hermione. She was looking down as she played around with her hands. As she looked up at Draco, she flashed him a small smile, hoping that he couldn't hear the rapid beating of her heart in her ears.

* * *

_A/N :_ Hey guys there's the update! Hope you like, it was real quick and not very well done, but I believe is by far the longest chapter I've written. And oh yeah I threw Charlotte in there because I didn't want Ron to be all alone, I mean I know in the book he was Hermione but in MY FANFIC she has Draco, so Ron is perfectly alone. Charlotte is a friend who really likes him, so well I just wanted to put her in my story, and by the way, she is actually as I write her, her looks and personality! Hehe! Read and review guys! Please. I will try to post again soon.

-Fallen11angel


	5. Adamo, Portrait Password

**Keeper**

_Chapter Five_

* * *

Hermione sealed the envelop of her letter neatly, and attached it onto an owl's outstretched leg. She flinched as the small owl closed its sharp claws over the envelope, and crinkled the fragile parchment. But then she sighed to herself and waved it off on its way; she watched as it flew into the distance, and disappear through a mist of clouds, wondering what the reaction of her parents would be once they had received her message.

Hermione walked forward, towards the large open archway, and peered out into the sky beside the tower, it looked somewhat within reach but that was obviously only an illusion created by God, or whoever made this Earth. Well anyway, enough of that, now was not the time for thinking about theology, however, it seemed it was the only time in which Hermione had enough free time to reflect. The sky lay toiling in its gloom, and the clouds were ever growing dark; it was another winter Sunday morning.

Most people were still probably asleep, or so it appeared, due to the absence of life at Hogwarts, as it was so early, but Hermione just couldn't get to sleep herself. She had a restless night and not a single wink of sleep and, if she eventually did, she would constantly keep waking up the instant she had fallen asleep. So, with nothing better to do, she set off to write a letter to her parents, trying to sort out her life, so that she didn't have so much to think about.

It seems these problems were slowly building up inside her, even if she chose not to think about them.

In the letter, Hermione had explained that she would be staying at Hogwarts for the Christmas holiday - not that she hadn't done so before, but this time it was different. She had lied, for reasons unexplainable to herself; and she had told them that she would really need to catch up on homework, if she was to start properly the following term. She and Draco, on the other hand, knew very well otherwise.

She thought of him at that moment and knew inside, he was another one of her problems.

Hermione felt like if she went home, she would be letting Draco down and if she stayed, she would be letting everyone else down.

Nevertheless, she wanted to be with him. Wasn't that enough to keep her here at school?

Hermione shivered as she remembered that she was in the Owlery, the cold air seeping slowly through the open windows and arches. Pulling her jumper around herself and drawing back from the sleeping owls, she decided to make her way back to the Quarters. Hermione looked around cautiously, before quickening her step down the steep stairs of the Owlery.

The walk to the Head's Quarters was extremely long and lonely, there was absolutely no one in the hallways except for her only company of her very own shadow and footsteps.

She let out an exhale of relief, when she finally reached the familiar portrait on the fifth floor, glad to be in a place where there were other people, or in this case, just another person. Draco Malfoy, to be more precise.

Hermione halted in front of the picture, and her echoing footsteps came to a stop too, causing an engulfing silence to ring noisily through the empty hallways. She tucked a strand of hair behind her ear before she continued.

The portrait lay sleeping, snoring loudly and rattling the frame of the picture with each large breath, the combined raucous snores of both Sir Cadogon and his horse breaking away at the uneasy silence of morning.

Hermione wasn't sure how to get in, so she coughed loudly a few times, in the hopes of waking Sir Cadogon up.

After a few awkward moments of no reaction, the knight opened his drooping eyelids and yawned; he jumped at the sight of Hermione there in front of him. He immediately straightened up, and his horse did the same, they assumed their superior brave-looking positions of standing.

"Wha- Oh my, so early in the morning Miss Granger? I didn't even realize that you had left the quarters." The knight said, startled and sleepy alike.

"I'm ever so sorry, Sir Cadogon." She muttered, receiving a brief nod from him.

"It's fine Miss, no worries at all." He coughed loudly as he sat upright again.

"Password?" Sir Cadogon continued firmly, raising up a little toy sword and swinging it in a attacking, yet ridiculous manner.

"_Adamo._" She replied.

The small knight cheered.

"Well done Miss Granger. I certainly wouldn't have remembered that one." He said giddily and winking at her, causing Hermione to grace her lips with a smile.

Suddenly, an unanswered thought that had been long forgotten over time sprung back into mind, she thought maybe now was a good time to ask before it was lost again.

"Um, Sir Cadogon? Do you possibly know what our password '_Adamo'_ means?" She asked, poking the oil painted portrait, to catch the attention of the knight, as he began jumping around on his equally small horse.

He stopped abruptly and turned to her. Placing a hand under his helmet, and stroking at the metal.

After a while of vigorous thinking, Sir Cadogon lifted it off so that he could talk, his hair a large wave of mess from being inside the clammy helmet.

"I'm terribly sorry Miss Granger, but it appears I don't. I can tell you though, that it sounds Latin. If that is, of any help to you?" He replied, his face still looking puzzled to some extent.

"Oh alrigh-" She began to say.

"Just a second Miss Granger, someone is trying to come outside." Sir Cadogon interrupted.

And before Hermione could ask, or get a word in, the portrait swung open, revealing a rather drowsy looking Draco on the other side. He was pulling on his jacket hastily, despite his feeling of tiredness and his hair looked a right mess, "_actually a very cute looking mess."_ So Hermione thought inwardly.

He stopped abruptly when he saw Hermione standing outside, staring at him open-mouthed. Caught slightly off guard, he took a small step toward her and blushed, much unlike himself, then he brushed a quick hand through his disorderly hair. Shortly afterwards, he flashed her a small smile.

"Hermione?" Draco asked almost immediately. He took a small hop as he tried to get a loose shoe on his foot, and then he was suddenly outside. Before long, the portrait closed again, Sir Cadogon was off and distracted by his shining sword, galloping in the space of his frame, sometimes entering the others during a slip, causing major wake-ups and arguments to occur. Now, it was just the two of them in the empty corridor.

"Where have you been?" He continued, ignoring the ever growing bickering from behind them, his hand sliding across the back of his neck and his gaze on the floor, obviously avoiding any eye contact.

Hermione almost gasped at the worried tone in his voice, she crossed her arms over her chest and tried to catch his eye, when she failed, she spoke up.

"Well, I was just at the Owlery. I was sending a letter to my parents to inform my stay at Hogwarts for the holidays." Hermione told him in a straightforward kind of way.

"Oh alright." Draco replied, leaning back and stretching, the concerned look on his face resolved.

An awkward silence drew by before Draco spoke again, "You see, I know this sounds strange but I came to check up on you and you weren't in your bedroom. So, I got a little worried… about you." The last part of his sentence was almost unheard, as it was so quietly said.

He focused his gaze on a nearby window, instead of on Hermione, trying desperately to hide his blushing cheeks from her.

"You check on me?" She asked, resisting a sarcastic snort.

His eyes snapped onto her and he explained, "I don't do it often, what I'm trying to say is, I don't mean to. Oh, I don't want to, I just do it-"

Draco slapped a hand on his forehead, knowing all to well that he had said too much, "Oh bugger!"

He opened his eyes when he heard Hermione laughing, rolling his eyes, he cast her a confused and helpless look.

"I suppose you have a reason now, we're friends right?" She said, as she placed a hand over her mouth and muffled her laugh.

"Yeah, 'suppose so." He sighed, relieved that she had saved him from utter humiliation, and he smiled thankfully at her.

Before another silence could erupt between them Hermione said in a more serious tone, "So, you were leaving to look for me?"

Draco nodded briefly, "Pretty much." He dug his hands into the depth of his pockets and took a step closer unknowingly.

Hermione felt her heart skip a few beats as he came toward her, she held back a deep sigh and though of a different subject to talk about. But none would surface in her mind, she tried to steer clear of looking at him, because if she did, their faces would touch and who knows what might happen then.

She felt his breath on her cheeks and immediately she knew that she must do something, otherwise she might do something a little too stupid. Hermione cleared her throat and placed her hands firmly on his shoulders, she felt his body tense a bit before he relaxed and she looked up at him, face to face. Their eyes met for a moment but then she tore them away.

From the corner of her eye she could see a frown play on his lips, before they parted slightly and she was sure, he was going to say something unnecessary.

"Um, Hermione…" He started.

Hermione took action, and gripping on to his shoulders, she gave him a small push backwards, so that there was a significant distance between them. Once he was at an arm's length, she let out a sigh of relief and Draco held an expression on his face that was a mixture of embarrassment and sadness.

Hermione began to regret pushing him away, mentally and physically, she now actually wanted to know what he was going to say.

She shook off the thought and let go of Draco, causing him to almost fall backwards without her stability, he steadied himself before giving Hermione a confused look with the extra Malfoy eyebrow raise. Letting her arms drop down by her sides again, Hermione took the time to smoothen down her clothes and once she had done so, she turned back to look at him.

"Listen to me Draco." Hermione began with a stern voice, "Do you know what our password means?"

"What? _Adamo?_" He asked, thinking to himself.

Hermione hoped that he knew, she threw him a pleading look, in the hopes that his knowledge would help her. But when she saw him shake his head in doubt, her curiosity for its meaning grew more.

"Sorry Hermione, I haven't got the slightest clue." He answered in a few words.

Hermione nodded in agreement, before turning away and walking off down the corridor, leaving Draco standing there feeling outstandingly perplexed.

Just when he thought of going back into the Quarters, Hermione spun around and called out, "Draco! Are you coming or not?"

Unable to disagree, he instantly ran after her, asking her and raising his voice so that she could hear him through her light-headed daze, "Where are we going?"

She turned her head to face him, all the while still walking in a quick pace.

"We're going to the library."

With that Draco let out a groan, and threw his hands up in the air in defeat as he continued to follow a rushing and a quite crazy Hermione. He smirked to himself, _"What on Earth was she up to now?"_

* * *

Draco slumped into a comfortable armchair in one darkened corner of the library, and stared up into the towering bookshelves above him. He squinted through the darkness, as he took note of each and every, shelf and book around him; he let out another heartfelt grumble, throwing his head in his hands. He was about to die of absolute boredom!

He heard a bodily thump, and looked up to find Hermione climbing an aged ladder, to get to a certain bookshelf labelled _Latin Reference Books. _He threw her an unknowing glare, trying to figure out what was going on.

He watched enthusiastically, as she got on her tip-toes and reached up to read a few of the book's names in front of her on the dusty shelves, she blew at some of the century old books, causing the air around her to look cloudy. Suddenly inside him, without even acknowledging its presence there before, he felt a joy of watching her, hence he propped up an arm and rested his chin on it, enchanted by her every movement.

Unconsciously he smiled, his eyes tracing her figure, and the way her hair waved around her shoulders. Over the years she had just managed to tame it, the curls that were once bushy and wild, now just fine and he could even call "a_ttractive."_.

"_But this was Hermione Granger, not the slightest bit attractive, no way... never."_ Draco thought to himself. He sighed and a small frown met his lips, he knew he could never have her, even if he did wish for her that night at The Three Broomsticks.

It would not be permitted by anybody, and if his father knew about his feelings at the least, he knew Lucius would kill him himself, with his own bare hands. Who knows, Lucius might even enjoy killing his own son.

He reclined back and sunk into the chair, picking up a book from nearby and trying dreadfully to get his attention away from his dreadful father and a certain girl, but his eyes kept going back to her, watching .

Frustrated, he snapped the book shut with such force, that a loud _bang_ could be heard throughout the entire library. He flinched, as Hermione turned to him looking frightened, placing a delicate finger over her lips and shushing him noisily. Draco gladly obliged and lay the book carefully on the floor next to him.

There was no escape from her.

_What was he going to do now? _

Hermione jumped down from the ladder, skipping a few steps, in order to get to the ground quick enough, once she was down she raced off to find someone that could help her find what she was looking for, gesturing for Draco to stay where he was before she left in a hurry.

She ran over to the librarian's desk and cursed under her breath when she found no one was there, causing a few heads to be turned in the library. She mumbled a few sorry's to them, as she looked around for help of any other sort.

Hermione, only saw a few heavy-eyed students finishing their homework, so she sighed and returned to where she knew Draco was sitting alone. When she returned into view, Draco looked up and cast her a hopeful look, but Hermione shook her head, causing him to groan again in such frantic misery.

"HERMIONE! CAN WE GO NOW?" He told her in a childish stage whisper.

Hermione gave him a guilty and apologetic look, which Draco knew from that instant, she was determined to find whatever it was she was looking for, however long that was going to take, he just did not know.

"Draco, I promise we can go as soon as I find that stupid Latin Dictionary!" She said, her voice rising with every word in her sentence until at last, it was a angry scream.

Draco knew that now, was certainly not the time to argue, otherwise she might bite off his head. He retreated into the seat cowardly, hoping to not get in the middle of Hermione's searching rampage.

They both simultaneously let out deep sighs of surrender, just as a girl popped up from behind the bookshelf in front of Hermione.

"Oh hello. I may have heard that you were looking for a Latin Dictionary." Charlotte said, causing Hermione to jump at the sudden extra company. Her face held such fear, of someone catching her with Draco, that he felt like bursting into hysterical laughter.

Charlotte didn't seem to notice this though, and she merely smiled, outstretching her arm thus handing the large, dusty book to Hermione. Who gladly smiled back and thanked her for it.

Charlotte nodded and was about to leave, when she suddenly said, "I'm awfully sorry I kept you searching for the book, I was using to find a few cool words and add them to my handy notebook." She took out a small green notebook from her pocket and waved it at Hermione, who looked like she was talking to such a strange odd girl; a distant sarcastic snort could be heard from Draco's direction.

With that she turned to leave again, but Hermione felt guilty, on the behalf of both Draco and herself.

"Excuse me. Um, what's your name? You've helped me a lot today." Asked Hermione.

She turned to Hermione, confused, but then she beamed and answered, "I'm Charlotte. I'm in the same year and house as you. Don't you remember?"

When Hermione had tried to recall ever seeing her before, she shook her head and tucked the book under her arm.

"Sorry, I don't know if I've ever seen you before. You say your in Gryffindor?" Hermione said, intrigued.

"Yup! But don't worry about it, not much people around here know me, it's like I'm new or something." She replied, laughing and Hermione considered that maybe she was new to Hogwarts, just as she was about to ask her, Charlotte said, as if reading her mind.

"And no, I'm not new." She said, giggling a little and Hermione nodded.

Hermione, was about to say something else, when Charlotte caught sight of someone, waved goodbye to Hermione and ran off so quick, that she never even got a chance to say a _"see you later."_

Feeling a tad bewildered, Hermione watched her race off before she turned back to Draco, who was sitting a few metres away, looking bored as hell itself had got to him, that she eventually remembered the book she held in her arms.

She gasped in surprise, running over to the chair Draco sat on, and pushing him aside so that she could sit next to him. The chair, being too small for the both of them, protested through a series of noisy creaks and squeaks, but they remained sitting, close together. Hermione placed the heavy book on her lap, and gave it a strong blow to get rid of most of the dust.

Draco, who was sitting next to her, got a face full of the dust, so began coughing and waving it away like some kind of lunatic. Once he had recovered, he felt just how uncomfortable the seat was with the two of them in it; he adjusted himself, so that he could breathe, twisting and putting an arm around her shoulders so that he could sit properly.

The contact was somewhat unnoticed by Hermione, as she flicked through the thick pages of the book and traced each word with her forefinger, skimming each paragraph that it touched. Draco leant back into the chair, as he heard Hermione mutter something to herself, before she finally exclaimed, "I found it!"

He remained behind her, as he said calmly, "Read it out, whatever it is." Gesturing and waving a hand.

She cleared her throat and placed her finger over what she was about to read.

"Adamo. Noun. Latin Word meaning..." She paused and turned slowly to Draco. Her eyes met his and he tried search for answers in them.

"What Hermione? What does it mean? Continue." He instructed when she stopped reading.

She took her eyes away from him, and he felt her leant back into the chair, his arm still placed around her shoulders. She shut the book and it slid onto the floor, Hermione turned her face to look at Draco, and for a moment he thought she was about to kiss him.

But she turned her head away from his again - feeling a little disappointed. And now, just realizing his arm was around her, Hermione tried not to make a big deal out of it, although, she knew inside that it was to her. Hermione did something that she thought she would never be capable of doing, making a move. She reached up and took his arm in her hands, so that she could feel his warmth and his skin. He felt him relax and from the corner of her eye, she saw him smile at her.

"Hermione? What does the password mean?" He asked encouragingly, whispering in her ear and breaking the deafening absence of words.

Her eyes looked up into his and she laughed a little, more at herself than at anything else.

"It means... to fall in love." She said, laughing again, yet louder this time, like the pieces had just begun to fit and it was wonderfully crazy.

Draco threw her a worried look, but then it subsided and he just let himself go. He wrapped his arms around her tighter, and she leaned into him, burying her face in his chest as she began to stop laughing, but to begin crying instead. It was inaudible, yet he knew exactly what was happening.

She was taking this too seriously and her problems had finally surfaced.

He smiled, engulfing Hermione into a hug.

Maybe if the password was that, it meant something, and if not, it probably told the past, maybe things like this had happened before; maybe just, maybe, it would work for the two of them too.

Draco felt something that he had never felt inside him before, it was hope.

* * *

_A/N :_ Well, sorry for the wait, but there is the next chapter. I am actually aware that the chapters are getting longer each time.. hahaha! Its quite funny, maybe my writing is somewhat improving, so yay! Anyway I need to go, but read and review. Please, if you could, thanks to those who have already done so, you guys are the most awesome of awesomeness. Oh okay, my brother just literally told me to eat my dinner - which I have been stalling for hours just to finish this chapter, oh, and know he is really screaming for me. Well I can't argue with that, can I? Chao then. I'm actually quite starving now that I think about it. And I'm babbling again, shucks.

Enjoy the story!

-Fallen11angel


	6. Ron And The Secret

**Keeper**

_Chapter Six_

* * *

"Ronald!"

Ron brushed a clumsy hand through his hair, and straightened himself up, as he turned around to face the person who was calling out his name. When he saw that it was Charlotte, who was waving quite wildly at him, he smiled and gave an awkward wave back, before he spun back around to the librarian and gave her a curt nod. She took the book, which he had just returned, and plastered heavily, a large stamp onto its inside cover – indicating that the book had now been returned safely to the school library.

He couldn't help but flinch, as she began to scribble some notes onto a scrap and ragged piece of notebook paper; her ink quill, scraping as ugly and noisily, as pulling some rather sharp fingernails down a worn chalkboard.

Turning back to Charlotte, who had by now already made her way past the study tables and towards him; he greeted her with a grin and a light, "Hello Charlotte!" Or tried to, at least.

She giggled shyly for a little bit, before she turned a shade of deep pink and cast her gaze away from him.

Feeling uneasy, at the rising tension, that had began to grow between the two of them, Ron cleared his throat strangely and said, trying to make some sort of decent conversation, "So, what are you doing here?"

Immediately, Charlotte looked up at him, so that they were now - for the umpteenth time, looking at each other, face to face. "Oh, well I was just giving a book to Hermione, over there." She stated, pointing a finger and indicating to the place, where she had only recently handed a dictionary over to Hermione, in a rarely used section of the library – or rarely used, by those normal students of Hogwarts, for Hermione however, it was a different story.

Ron threw her a confused look, and followed the path in which Charlotte was pointing to. He too pointed his finger, at the shady area covered mostly in a ton of aged looking bookshelves and dusty floorboards. "Over there you said?" He asked, questioningly and raising an eyebrow.

Charlotte merely beamed and nodded: now that Ron thought about it, she was a lot like Luna, character wise, who knew, the two might actually get along if they met. "Must go over and say hello then." Ron said, as he began to make his way over to the spot nearby.

Suddenly, Charlotte jumped into his path and blocked his way, a shy and small smile on her face. She waved her arms around in front of him, possibly suggesting that it wasn't such a wise idea to go there and see his friend, "No, no! Don't do that, she has company."

Charlotte knew all too well, that if Ron would see Hermione hanging out with Draco Malfoy (of all people), he would be furious, and Hermione probably wouldn't be all too pleased to see him either. This was not the right time for such reunions.

And even her, you didn't really know the popular trio too well personally, knew perfectly that Draco was clearly a sign to stay clear of, especially when with the other two males of the heroic group were nearby.

Ron backed up a bit; a puzzled expression could be read all over his features. "Let's just go now, alright?" Charlotte said encouragingly, trying desperately to divert the boy away from trouble. She took one last look back, and caught a glimpse of Draco, pulling a miserable looking Hermione into a tight and somewhat friendly hug. She gulped fearfully, and tugged at Ron's arm, pulling him away as quick as she possibly could yet trying to be subtle about it.

Ron, being dragged away by an over-crazy Charlotte, scratched his head – confused, and took a sneak glance back, just to check if Hermione was alright. But there, a sight which caused his blood to boil and caused him to gasp, his mouth dropping open with such length downwards. He angrily yanked his arm away from Charlotte's grasp, and turned around fully so he could see for sure, if what he thought was there, was actually really there.

How dare he! How dare Malfoy even try to touch Hermione!

Ron straightened up, so that he looked rather taller and more, to some extent menacing. He began to walk hastily toward the two, who were sharing a chair together somehow, and just when he thought things couldn't get any worse, he saw Hermione do something he thought he would never see in his lifetime, or in any other lifetime to be more precise. She reached up and hugged Malfoy back! Well yeah, she did look like she was crying or something like that, but this was completely out of hand, and very uncharacteristic of her.

This was the boy she had hated, for her entire stay at Hogwarts so far! The boy who had tormented her for all these years, calling her unrepeatable names and playing heartless tricks on her for entertainment; he would never have any sympathy for her, nor any feelings either.

He stopped for a moment and Charlotte took immediate action. She gripped firmly onto his arm again, and began to pull Ron in the other direction, "Ron?" She knew all to well inside, that this was to some kind of extent, her doing, and she felt ever so guilty.

Ron instantly relaxed at her touch and the sound of her voice, turning to face her he said, "Charlotte, stay out of this. Okay?" He whispered loudly, to which Charlotte shook her head vigorously and continued to pull him out of the library, so that the other two were nearly out of sight.

"Hermione!" Ron yelled out to her. Hermione and Draco suddenly pulled apart, and immediately Hermione knew who had just screamed and why he had done so. Ron had just seen her, or rather, the two of them together. Upon thinking this, Hermione caught sight of Ron and looked straight into his eyes which, though from a far distance, held such a feeling of disappointment in them. She gasped in utter demolishment, and Draco, in reassurance took hold of her hand in his, to try and comfort her in some way; but Hermione snatched her hand away frigidly, still maintaining her stare with Ron.

"'Mione, what the hell do you think you're doing?!" Was the last she heard, as Charlotte gave one last heave, to get him out of the room and trying to stop him from causing any more damage. That one last sentence rang in her ears, and inside she never felt so distraught.

"Ron, I don't think shouting is going to help." Charlotte breathed out tiredly, once they were out and away in the next few corridors. Ron staggered back out of her reach, and continued to breathe heavy for a while, before he finally snapped out of his daze and looked up into Charlotte's eyes for answers, but he eventually found none.

She took a step towards him, although, he put up a hand and begged her to stay back. He then clenched his hands and bit his lip, as he turned to her and said heatedly, "I better go… and pack my things."

Charlotte stood there astonished, as he walked away in a considerable rush, and understood, that he was talking about leaving for the vacation. She sighed and turned her head slightly, so that she could look behind her, in the direction of the library.

This certainly was going to change things quite a lot. Definitely for more than one person too.

She wasn't sure if she follow a furious Ron Weasley and pack her own belongings, or to just stay out here for a bit. Maybe it was best, if Ron didn't see her for a little while, she must wander around, just to clear out of his way. It was probably best, if no one was near her for the time being, maybe more of her own doing might cause a lot more to happen.

* * *

Hermione got up and glanced around worriedly, the tears stinging her eyes once again. Draco, followed her immediately, standing up too, a feeling of bemusement flowing right though him. "_Why on earth was Hermione getting so damn upset for?"_

He placed a soft hand on her shoulder, causing Hermione to jump in shock before she shrugged it off calmly. Draco drew back his hand in despair and a frown played onto his delicate lips, he thought of something smart to say but then pursed his lips so that none of the words would come out – the situation seemed too awkward at the moment.

"Hermione? What's the matter?" He began, but was cut off when she turned to him, a swift hand drying the tears on her light, rosy cheeks.

"Nothing is the matter Malfoy." She replied coldly, to which Draco scoffed loudly.

"Since when do you call me Malfoy, Hermione?" He asked, a small smirk emerging on his face, perhaps thinking it was some sort of joke.

But her face still held the same expression of sadness, except that it now looked angrier than it did earlier; instantly the smile was wiped of Draco's face and he became serious again. She took a step forward in a somewhat intimidating sort of way before she spoke again, "Since we first met Malfoy!" She spat out to him.

Draco looked back at her with such confusion, "I thought we were over that! I know I hurt you before, but that was a long time ago, I'm over it! You know I would never hurt you now or ever." She still remained quiet though, still emotionless as ever.

He raised an eyebrow and was about say something else comforting but then suddenly his defence mechanisms kicked in, and he felt his pride erupt somewhere inside him.

"What's wrong with you! Did I possibly do something to hurt your fragile feelings… again! Damnit, there is just no bloody pleasing you is there. God!" He heard himself say before he couldn't even think straight.

And with that, Hermione did not even bother to reply, she breathed out deeply before she just stormed out of the library with such great pace, that even Draco was shocked. He did a quick double take before he finally realized that he should go after her and sort this mess out, "Wait!" He said.

After all, things had just begun to turn out quite well.

He raced out of the busying library, past prying eyes and out into the vacant corridor, where Hermione was not too far ahead… thankfully.

"Hey!" He yelled out, and when she barely even flinched and kept on walked on, he ran after her, sighing with the utmost exasperation and rolling his eyes.

"Heyyy!" He continued, walking behind her closely, "Hermione!"

She still, ignored him however, so Draco grabbed her arm in order to get her full attention, pulling her back towards him roughly so that she bumped right into his front and looked straight into his eyes, "What is bloody going on here?" He said.

Hermione tried desperately to pull herself away from his grasp but he was too strong, and the more she struggled, the more it began to hurt, "Nothing! Let me go this instant!"

"No!" He said, raising his voice to a threatening level and tightening his grasp on her.

Tears stung Hermione's eyes from the pain, and she tried to give one last tug back to retrieve her arm, but failed, "Please Draco, you're hurting me…" She said in a whisper, the tears flooding out freely.

All of a sudden, he realized what he was doing and his expression softened with the guilt, he let go hurriedly and took a leap back, looking down at his hands as if they could not be controlled. Hermione too stumbled back, in order to increase the space between them, and she then rubbed her arm so that the numbness would go away. She looked up at him with hurt in her eyes, "I want to leave now. Please." She said, so quietly but he still heard every word she uttered.

Nevertheless, he still felt there was something wrong with all of this, so he ran in front of her and blocked her pathway, receiving a brief look of shock from Hermione, "Don't you just leave. Not now." He told her equally as quietly as she did to him.

"Ron knows." She told him in a matter-of-a-fact kind of way, "And he acted just the way I thought he would. He'll tell. The whole school will know now. Don't you care? I won't have anyone anymore… no one!" She continued, raising her voice slightly and getting upset again, just when she thought she was beginning to calm down.

"You know what. I don't care if the whole school knows. I don't give the slightest damn care in the world, Hermione! Let them know that I think that the most amazing person I think I've ever met is you. Let them know. But you know what; you're the one who doesn't care!" Draco shouted at her, feeling wounded.

At first Hermione looked stunned and for a moment Draco thought she was going to say something, but then she didn't - she just opened her mouth and then closed it again, before just walking away from him. Just like that, leaving him there in the corridor.

He clenched his fist and turned around clockwise to watch her leave, "Hermione!" He called out, but she kept walking on, "You may think you have no one, but in the end you'll always have me."

For a second Hermione stopped and looked back at Draco, from the distance he wasn't sure what her eyes said, and before he could say anything more she carried on walking. Soon, moving completely out of sight, as she turned into another hallway.

"Don't you walk away from me! Don't walk away from this!" He bellowed loudly, hoping she would hear and just come running back, but of course his luck never changed.

He sighed to himself, and made a start in the opposite direction. Maybe things like really didn't work out after all.

That was all just complete and in the end, disappointing wishful thinking.

He looked out of a nearby window and took in the beauty of the day, warm winter sunshine and dew swept grass fields. He saw in the Quidditch field, a faint blur of flying green uniformed figures. Sighed to himself, remembering the practice that he had scheduled for today, since he was now captain of the team.

He hurried off, conjuring his brown along the way there. Maybe, spending some time in they sky could clear his mind, or could just take his mind off the subject of anything related to Hermione and how he felt about her.

He knew exactly what he was getting himself into when he found out how he felt, although, as things have turned out beforehand, he knows now that nothing ever goes well for Draco Malfoy.

Draco stepped out into the chilly winter air and mounted his broom, not bothering to greet his fellow companions and team mates, but getting straight to the flying. They all obliged willingly and a rough came into play on the field - an easy way for Draco to get rid of his anger.

Hermione, however, buried her face in her pillow, but she did not cry – there were no more tears left to cry. What the hell was she going to do?

The next thing she felt, was a vast nothingness as she fell into a deep, dreamless and meaningful sleep. Well, it's a good thing, she was going to have another late night anyway. Things can sort themselves out, as fast as they come undone.

* * *

_A/N :_ Hey there! Well, sorry if this was too long of a wait, and if this chapter was way too short. Thats just because its more like a build up, tension thing chapter so I can have something for my next chapter... right? If you understand what I'm trying to say and all. I promise it gets better again, and for those of you that do care about her, I know I do, no worries - Charlotte the great, will be back soon. And yeah, please don't hate Hermione for this chapter, she was just upset. Okay, I feel like I used everyone now just to make you feel sorry for little Draco.. drool. ANYWAY! Woop! Gotta run. Please, as always, read and review, tell me what you think yadda yadda... Enjoy whatever! It would make my day.

-Fallen11angel


	7. Unexpectation At The Station

**Keeper**

_Chapter Seven_

For Clearance: Anything in _Italics_ is either thoughts or memories. Or maybe even both, it should be clear enough I hope.

* * *

Harry drew Hermione into a quick hug, knowing all too well that he had to get on board the train quickly before it left without him, "You sure you don't want to come back with us?" He asked for the thousandth time since he knew that Hermione had decided to stay back at school for the Christmas vacation. He recalled the moment when she had told them, not really very well either:

"_Hermione, are you alright?" Ginny asked as she looked over at her friend worriedly. Hermione was currently sitting opposite to her and Harry - Ron was sitting somewhere nearby also on the Gryffindor table. _

_At the instant Ginny said Hermione's name, her head shot up and she looked as if she was a deer caught in the headlights; like she had been found doing something she wasn't supposed to be doing. Her food, was unexpectedly untouched, she obviously had a plentiful amount to think about, whatever it was Harry and Ginny couldn't quite work it out._

"_Um, I'm fine." She said hazily, "Just have, a lot to do." She looked up for a concise moment and immediately her eyes found someone or something in the direction of the Slytherin table, which caused her to look down at her dinner plate once more, her hair covering her face like a shady curtain. _

"_But you've got to eat something." Harry told her once he knew he couldn't figure out who she was looking at. _

"_I don't have the stomach for it." _

_Harry and Ginny exchanged questioning looks, before turning back to Hermione. _

"_Sorry guys, but I have to stay here for the Christmas holiday. At school I mean." She said extremely quietly and her eyes not leaving her plate, "I have to catch up on a few jobs and things." Before the two of them could say anything, they heard Ron snort sarcastically from close by. _

"_Things to do… right." They heard him mutter before he went back to stuffing his face with food. Harry cast him an angry yet confused look and Ginny did the same. _

"_Hermione? Are you sure? I mean, this is __Christmas__. You wouldn't really want to miss it for school, would you?" Harry started, his eyebrow raising ever so slightly but he was interrupted by a deep sigh from Ginny._

"_Of course she would Harry, I mean, Head Girl. She wouldn't miss that for anything else!" Ginny stated to him smugly, as if she knew her more than anybody else, to which they both began on something between an argument and a discussion. Whatever they were talking about, they soon forgot about Hermione. It was good in a way, because then they didn't really notice Ron glaring at Hermione so much, that she was forced to get up from the table and merely leave, fuming at his childish behaviour. The hostility was far too much for her to take. _

Hermione nodded as she pulled out of the hug, "Yeah, I've got Head duties to do. Remember?"

"Well, I'm glad I wasn't chosen for Head Boy then, I bet I wouldn't ever be able to give up my holidays for any stupid duties!" He laughed loudly, and Hermione slapped him playfully on the arm; she wanted to laugh at the irony of his statement, since there were actually no duties to be done, just a dumb deal she put herself into. But she promised to do something, and of course she was a girl of her word.

Harry greeted her with a brief "goodbye", placing a comforting hand on her shoulder and giving it a slight squeeze. Her lips curled into a small smile which Harry could see right past, he knew inside that she was definitely upset about something. He fought back the urge ask her to come home with them one more time.

He was just about to ask about why she seemed so down, when Ginny came over and buried her in a suffocating hug, beaming and bidding her last farewells to her best friend before the extensive journey home. After a short while, the question was lost amongst the commotion and Harry totally forgot what he was about to say, so he picked up the last of he and Ginny's luggage with his arms, before he went off to get on the train, very much hoping that Luna and Neville had already found them an empty carriage. With one last wave, he disappeared into a crowd of chattering students by the train.

And also before she knew it, Ginny too walked onto the train as its engine began to roar noisily, waving back to her all the way as she tried to catch up with Harry, leaving Hermione on the school train platform alone with Ron.

She looked at him, but saw that he was avoiding her, as he did since that incident at the Library - it was silly really. He shifted uneasily on his feet and brushed a hand across the back of his neck - as usual, he said nothing and Hermione had absolutely nothing to say back to him either. He took in a deep inhale before he swung his rather large rucksack onto his shoulder and walked quite hurriedly onto the train, without anything even as a look back. He just left, as if they nothing more than strangers anymore.

The good thing was, no one knew… at least not yet.

She held back the insistent push to just cry at that moment, things were more messed up then she expected now that she had the time to think about it. It seemed Ron was no longer her friend; and soon everyone was bound to know that she and Draco were now friends too (or perhaps even the slightest bit more – but she did not want to think of that); Charlotte, who seemed to be almost extremely bright all the time, was barely even seen around much anymore; and finally, Draco… she felt the hairs on the back of her neck rise upon thinking of him, well, she should have said something to him, not just walked away like that. She didn't know just how to react, how to think, she thought that maybe if she had just treated him like she did when they had hated each other to the brim, things would go back and rewind to the way they were before, when things were simple and so much easier – squashing anything she felt for him along with that too.

Of course she was wrong.

She felt here lip quiver and knew the tears were going to come, the train rushed off into the distance, a cloud trail of steam bellowing after it, leaving her well and truly alone with her thoughts. With every few feet or so away it took, the more she wanted to be on it, on her way homeward too.

* * *

Draco waved at his so called "friends" as the train took off for London, he saw Parkinson blow a kiss at him from one of the windows, and he replied with a distasteful glare before casting his gaze onto a pebble that lay beside his shoe, why was she still chasing after him? Once the train was well out of sight, he decided it was time he got himself off this platform before he froze to death. He saw Hagrid, the school's groundskeeper, lumbering around not too far off ahead of him, and he gave him a polite nod to which Hagrid responded with a shocked look and a try for a small smile – at least he tried right. Draco sighed before turning around to head for the castle, kicking the pebble as he went.

He recalled that he, and from what he had heard, Hermione had been avoiding one another for a long time. It's got to be around three weeks now at least, and that's especially hard if you live with each other too. If he saw her around the school, she would be gone before he even got close, before he even got to say anything. He wasn't exactly sure if it was something he did or said, because he hadn't really said anything to her that gave her a reason to be mad. But he knew she didn't want to be near him, so he let her be, no matter how much he wanted to be near her.

The only time they met properly, is when they had their compulsory duties to do, in which they would work wordlessly before separating quickly afterwards – it was an awkward process which had to be done.

Otherwise, he spent his free time playing Quidditch or, if need be he hung around with his old group of Slytherin friends again, they were more than willing to have him back anyway, especially that Pansy, she's been all over him since he was back. Been crawling right onto his lap, reminiscent of when they were a couple. Of course Draco still took to pushing her away; she wasn't and will never be Hermione Granger.

That was all that he wanted.

But, nevertheless, Hermione Granger isn't and never will be his to have. A simple fact that shouldn't feel like a stab in the gut, but it did and it sucked severely.

"_Come on Draco." Pansy whined, latching on him and wrapping her arms around his neck, "What's been wrong with you lately? Its like you don't even know me anymore." She crooned in his ear, her babyish voice becoming more annoying with each word she said._

_Draco gave her a disgusted look and took her arms with his hands, prying them away from him and trying to get himself unattached from her. He got up from his seat - which was currently the sofa in the Slytherin common room - and since he was avoiding Hermione, he took a good liking to hanging out in his old common room again. Besides, they were having a party tonight, so why miss out on the fun? The holidays, it seemed, were well on their way to arriving, so in their opinion, it was about time they should celebrate. Also, the group were slightly shocked when Draco decided to hang with them again, but eventually, they just let him stay, despite him not really giving them a good enough excuse for his absence. _

_From behind him, he heard the other guys that were hanging out with them snicker at Pansy's facial expression, which was usually hilarious every time she found she was rejected, particularly if it was by Draco - her mouth dropping down almost to the ground. Unfortunately, when it came to him, she would never back down without a good fight. Always coming back for more._

_Draco stuck his hands into his pockets and leant onto the wall nearby, so that: one, he could be away from Pansy; and two, see the group clearly from where he was standing. Soon enough they sprouted into another fruitful conversation, sharing stories and catching up with one another. They laughed at a few other jokes and for a minute or so, Draco felt as if though everything was normal again; Pansy even came over to him and he had the decency to wrap an arm around her shoulders. Naturally, she started grinning like an idiot, thinking that he had won him over with her flirtatious skills._

_The night was going to be a long one. _

_But evidently, it had begun to get a little late and the Slytherin sixth years had somewhat enough magical liquor to drink, some perhaps having way too much over their limit, luckily it was a Friday night, the hangovers could go unknown by any of the teachers at least for a few days – it would give them plenty of time to recover – not that its supposed to be acceptable, because it certainly is not. Draco, was one of those kids who had got themselves absolutely drunk – well, his only problem now, was how he was going to walk back to the Head's Quarters in this state, staggering around like a drunken fool, obviously trying to drink his sorrows away. (No one was sure whether to feel sympathy for the guy or not.) _

_Before long, Pansy had found him again, amongst the crowd and without a second to loose she had tried to smother the poor guy with an intoxicated kiss. Before he could do anything to stop it, his mind took over and all he could smell and taste was the liquor, all he could feel was her tight grasp. Of course, he had obliged at first, thinking that she was somebody else, a certain girl on his mind, but a few seconds into the kiss, he realized how wrong he was. _

_He found himself tangled in Pansy's grip, his arms found encircling her waist too, their lips locked with one another's – through the noise and the sound of his mind screaming, he heard a few wolf whistles from the Slytherin's. _

_As if by extreme shock, he leapt back, pushing her away from him. He wiped his lip shakily and stumbled away from her to which she tried to follow him desperately._

"_Draco?" She asked, perceptibly shocked by his sudden reaction. Draco's head stung, the drink getting to him and making him exceptionally groggy, though he tried at his utmost to stay awake. He lifted a hand to his temple and flinched at his headache._

"_Getta way fro meh Pansy!" He said fiercely but sleepily, trying to make his way out of this crazy crowd of students. She grabbed onto his arm once more and Draco pushed her hard away, so that she fell back and bumped into a group of the guys which Draco knew well. _

_They turned around to see the commotion and didn't really take a liking to being interrupted from what they were doing. They knew Draco had been "off" lately but he didn't have to hurt a fellow house mate, something was getting to his head. _

_The guy had changed somehow._

"_What's up Draco, what's wrong with you?" Blaise asked him, as he stood to his full height and began staring him down, "What did you do to Parkinson?" _

_Both boys looked over at the girl just mentioned and as expected, found her sitting on the floor looking like a complete mess, crying her eyes out. _

_Draco almost smiled through his drunkenness, but then he furrowed his brow and looked tremendously serious, well if you ignored his unstable swaying on the spot, "I thought she was somebody else, sorry. Not who I thought it was." He whispered to Blaise, pointing at her, "I didn't wanna kiss 'er." _

_Draco laughed before trying to find his way out again, but Blaise blocked his path and raised an eyebrow at his strange behaviour. _

"_What are you on about mate? It's always been you and Pansy, remember? Ever since you guys were young. We may be smashed but we still know tha-" He began saying, placing a hand on Draco's shoulder to steady himself and look him right in the eye._

_Draco growled and slapped his hand away from his shoulder, staggering back against a wall, "No! Not us! She's not the one. No no…" He trailed away into a mumble, shaking his head vigorously like a child. _

"_Huh?" _

"'_Mione. Yeah she's the one." Draco smiled sheepishly to himself, grabbing a bottle of liquor from the hands of a fifth year and taking a swig from it before throwing it away._

_Blaise slapped himself and almost snapped out of his inebriated state, did he just hear that? He laughed loudly and poked Draco in the chest jokingly, "No, not her, stop joking around man!" _

"_Am not lying – eh, don touch meh!" He yelled pushing him off angrily. _

"_What! Not lying, you can't like her. __No no no!" __Blaise said through gritted teeth, grabbing his friend by the collar of his shirt, "You're drunk, jus gone mad I say." _

"_Am not! Am no liar! I like 'er!" He said, raising his voice and grabbing a handful of Blaise's shirt too. _

"_Bastard!" Blaise roared, "Traitor!" _

"_Am not!" _

"_So that's where you've been all this time, hiding with your little mudblood girl were you? No wonder we haven't seen you in weeks – you've replaced us with some stupid Gryffindor girl!"_

"_Shut up!" Draco screamed at him, shoving him away with a heated push, "Don't you ever call her that!" Blaise fell backwards and snarled before stalking back to his opponent._

"_It's true! It's all true, isn't it?" _

_And before__ Draco could even retort back, Blaise curled his hand into an unbreakable fist and threw a punch at Draco, feeling the solid contact as it connected with his friends jaw – hearing the faint click as it did so. Blaise gasped at the pain and stroked his bleeding hand, shaking it as if to numb the pain – it was a strong hit. Draco, was knock down and immediately his hand shot up to his mouth, there he found his mouth was bleeding; he spat out the blood and felt his lip stinging. Then he staggered up and threw himself onto Blaise, where they both ensued into a brawl, trying urgently to kill the other with no sense of mind. _

_In due course__ the two boys were pulled apart, despite Draco's arm around Blaise's neck as he tried to strangle him, they were held back from each other by several other strong guys in their house. _

"_She's__ a mudblood!" Blaise screamed, struggling to get his hands back on his new found opponent, no longer a friend but now an enemy. _

"_You jerk!" Draco replied, escaping the grasp of the boys who held him back and throwing another punch at Blaise in the chest. Blaise spat out a mouthful of blood and groaned in the pain, curling back away from Draco as much as he could. _

_Instantly the other boys were by his side again, holding back Draco's flying arms, and he tried more than ever to escape them, kicking and screaming. They took him to the portrait of the common room, fighting the drunken teen with all their might and pushed him out into the dark and empty corridor of the dungeons: by now attracting a crowd of people from the party. _

_Blaise pushed past the students angrily__ to get to the front of the crowd and once there, he eyed Draco with disgust. _

"_Draco, what would your father say?" He told him, wiping the blood from his cheek before pointing at him accusingly. Draco steadied himself against a wall and glared back at the crowd._

"_Don't you come back until you sort yourself out!" He continued, his voice echoing in the silence of the hallway._

_Draco laughed almost wickedly at Blaise's statement, "Bastard." He muttered before walking for the comfort of his __own Quarters. He heard them hold back Blaise as he tried to throw himself at Draco in the hopes of fighting him again. _

"_Draco!" He heard Pansy yell from a distance, but he merely ignored her, walking away precariously as he smiled._

_He arrived into the security of his common room sooner or later, after having haunted the darkness of the school corridors just __to get back, his wand in one hand just in case there was any need to use it. _

_After he woke up Sir Cadogon, and simply disregarding his questions about his whereabouts, he stumbled onto the staircase with the total intention of minimally going to his room to just sleep. However, once he got to the top of the stairs, to the somewhat centre of the corridor connecting his room to Hermione's; he changed disposition completely, turning to head for her room._

"'_Mione!" He shouted, punching her door once, so hard he almost thought it was going to break down. _

_There was silence from the other side of the door so he decided to continue, "Hey! Are you awake?" He cried, banging her door a few more times, as if to dare her to come out, "I had a fight with one of my best friends today, and you know what? It was all for you." _

_He laughed hysterically at what he had just said, and thought he just heard a shuffling from inside the bedroom. _

"_Come on Hermione! Get out here, I want to see you for once!" He said as kicked the door, very much hoping to break it down, all so he could get in, "I need to see you!"_

_Suddenly, her bedroom door shot open and revealed a rather scared yet flustered Hermione on the other side. __She eyed him suspiciously as Draco smiled upon seeing her. _

"_What are __you doing Draco?" She said delicately, searching his eyes for answers. _

"_Finally," He said sighing with relief, grabbing her arm and pulling her towards him so that they were barely even inches apart, "I can see you now." He grinned sheepishly and swayed on the spot just a little bit. _

_Hermione could smell the stench of alcohol all over him and at the instant she knew that it was best that she didn't strike a nerve, muggles and magical people alike could do crazy things when they were drunk - he was probably particularly fragile right now, "Draco, you reek of alcohol." She whispered as she tried to free herself from his grasp, lightly yet firmly. _

"_No__, don't leave me." He said, raising his voice and hugging her, wrapping his arms around her body so that it was more difficult to escape from him. _

"_Draco, no. You're not thinking straight."_

"_Yeah I am." He muttered, his voice steadier than it had ever been all night, it appeared she was making him, to some extent, feel more sober, "I'll sleep outside here all night if I have to." _

"_No." She stated, "You don't deserve that." She tried to smile but it was so weak you could barely even call it a try. Draco smiled back all the same, taking hold of her hand. At first she flinched but then he felt her ease into it. _

"_Come on, let's get you some rest." She continued, seeing Draco getting extremely heavy-eyed. Steadily, she __led him to his room, where she made him sit down on his bed so that he could get some sleep; she too sat on the edge of it as he did so. Hermione make an effort not to look at him, because she just couldn't, not yet. For a moment everything became awkwardly quiet. _

"_Um, Draco." She said turning around to where she knew he was, but then she stopped when she found him already asleep, snoring lightly__, looking very peaceful in the light of the moon. She smiled to herself and attempted to leave as quietly as she could, removing his firm grip on her hand and getting up. _

_Hermione stopped at the doorway and turned to look back, smiling at__ him she said, "Goodnight Draco," before closing the door behind her and returning to her room, finding it very difficult to sleep._

Draco walked slowly towards the exit of the platform, but then his eye caught something ahead of him, slowly and surely he made out the figure before him and knew that it was Hermione.

She was standing a little bit away from him on the platform, with her back to him at an angle; she seemed to be staring at something that wasn't there, the winter wind playing with her hair. Draco just stopped walking and stared, without knowing anything better to do. Unconsciously, Hermione took a loose strand of hair from her face and tucked it behind her ear before a faint smile appeared on her face; Draco saw this and couldn't help but smile too.

As if by instinct, Hermione sensed that someone was watching her, her head turned quickly to the direction that Draco was standing in. Draco didn't know how to react, so he cast his gaze down to the floor again, hoping that she didn't catch him gaping at her, like some sort of love struck fool.

But then, after a while, he felt the urge to look up, he found Hermione walking away from him – again, without even looking back. He sighed, (when she wanted to be she could be real stubborn), he took a small step forward, as if she would just come running back if he did. However, he found that she didn't.

"Hermione." He said, just to hear the sound of her name on his lips.

* * *

Hermione felt the need to turn around and find him again. But her feet kept walking, perhaps getting faster with each step she took. It was stupid really, there was no use running away from her problems, she did need to fix them, and fast.

At that thought, she looked up and snapped out of her daze, her feet halting on the spot they were in too. Hermione turned around with one movement and began walking back to where she knew he was, before she knew it she had broke into a quick jog and was on the train platform again; as expected, she found Draco standing in the same spot she left him in, she recognized his usual standing position, hands in pockets and face completely emotionless. She stopped only when she felt his eyes on her, and without even knowing, she smiled.

Draco raised an eyebrow but then he smiled back. Hermione did the only thing she could think of at that one moment, she ran up to him and wrapped her arms around his neck, resting her head in the crook of his neck, slightly knocking the wind out of him. She felt him stiffen at the contact but then almost at once, he returned the gesture and put his arms around her small waist.

"I'm sorry." She said, her voice muffled against the cloth of his jacket.

"I'm sorry too." He replied tightening the hug, and smiling faintly.

"I should have said something; I shouldn't have been so horrible and treated you that way." She argued.

"No, it's alright, you had a reason to, right?" He asked, trying to be even the slightest bit comforting.

She just shrugged and Draco felt the need to laugh, so he did. Before long, Hermione laughed too, burying her face in his chest again.

Suddenly, Draco stopped laughing and all he could do was stare at her – damn, this girl was so confusing, one moment fighting, and the next, acting like he was the object of her affection – well, he wanted to clear something out.

He wanted to kiss the right girl this time.

"Hermione?" He said questioningly, to which she looked up and smiled, happy to have cleared one of her problems up.

Man, he couldn't resist it anymore, he had been waiting too long for a moment like this, wanted to do this for an awfully long time. He then enclosed the space between them and without doubt, he kissed her, he heard her gasp against his lips but he ignored it, just closing his eyes tight so that the moment wouldn't end. Now all he could feel was her soft lips on his and all he could hold was her. To begin with, she had made an attempt to push him away, their lips still connected however, her grasp was now equally tight on him.

At that moment he couldn't think of anything else, and he made no effort to bring the kiss any further, it was chaste and innocent, a show of emotion that he felt.

He cupped her cheek with his hand and smiled. Despite the bond between their lips, he felt her smile too.

* * *

_A/N : _Well, there. Sorry for the extremely long absence and this excuse for a good chapter. I assume it was to quickly written and that it probably makes no sense. But hey, they kissed right? Finally, and there will probably be a few more kisses to come, because I am definitely a sucker for romance. I must try to update this story sooner and this chapter too, sorry if you didn't quite like it. It's just a chapter I thought of writing for the benefit of the story, yadda yadda. Anyway, review and I wouldn't mind a few suggestions. Reviews are mostly the only reason I continue. So hint hint.

Well, enjoy!

-Fallen11angel


	8. I'm Going Out

**Keeper**

_Chapter Eight_

Much thanks to **Keshet**, **Verya**, **kk1999, Nangini** and **MadeNew** for their constant, or recent reviews – as I have found out. If I missed anyone else out, well, thanks to you too. If so message me and I'll pop you into my little "thankings."

Anyway, on with this story…

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Draco's cold silver eyes shot open and with a something short of a moan, he rubbed his aching temple. Instead of his surroundings being bathed in a morning glow of sunlight, he found that it was still the dead of night, the moons silky light dancing with shadows in his room. He sat up on his bed as he placed his head into his hands, swinging his legs off the side until his feet found the wooden floor beneath him, its texture smooth but chilly. He let out another heartfelt groan as he felt the gush of winter wind sweep past him and slither around his bedroom – that damned window was left open again. With a slight pang of annoyance he stood up, throwing his bed sheets off him as he did so, and staggered towards the open window, slamming it shut with his utmost strength and locking it with its bolt.

"Humph!" He said, crossing his arms over his chest with triumph.

He made a face at the window, as if it were actually a person, before turning back around to get himself some sleep; but there, he saw a snowy white owl perching on his bed, staring right at him. Draco squinted, looking closer through the darkness and could make out the faint shape of an envelope in one of his claws, a familiar green and silver seal plastered onto it. His eyes widened as he recognized the seal to be none other than his own family's… the Malfoy seal; and the owl of course, was his mother's.

With hesitation, he started towards it slowly, carefully removing the letter from its grasp once he approached the owl safely; since the owl did have a reputation of violence and aggression. As he lifted the envelope into the moonlight he found his thoughts were correct, the seal definitely was the Malfoy's very own – sighing, he opened the window again, letting the owl escape him and return back to the cold of the Manor. Feeling reality slap him in the face, he then shut the window again and watched, as the owl grew smaller into the distance.

Draco then stared at the envelope, as if he could easily see through it, but sure enough, he couldn't. He brushed a rough hand through his messed up blonde hair and started to make his way out of his room and to the common room, where he was sure he could take comfort in the warmth of the fireplace; perhaps there he could read whatever this letter was in peace – that is, if he had the guts to.

He took his time making his way there, toying with the letter in his hands as he walked; with each step down the staircase he made, he felt the light of the fire play colours onto his face, flickering flames of yellow and red. When he eventually got himself down to the last step, he decided to look up and take in his surroundings, but jumped slightly when he saw Hermione sitting on the sofa. She seemed oblivious to his presence.

His heart skipped a beat.

Draco stiffened, not knowing how to react since their last meeting, but settled on not letting any of his feelings show or consume him. He walked leisurely towards the sofa, where Hermione sat, hugging her legs with her arms as she rested her chin on the top of her knees.

"Hey." He whispered, afraid to scare her or snap her out of her daze.

Slightly delayed, she looked up at him and a weak smile appeared on her face, "Hey." She replied before gesturing for Draco to sit down; she let her legs fall back down and she sat up properly to make room for him, her hair spilling freely onto her shoulders. It had resumed to loose curls ending to just about waist length.

Draco willingly obliged, seating himself beside her once she had fixed herself up, he leant back into the comfort of the chair as their skin brushed past one another with their close proximity – it was enough to make them both shiver.

He rested his head on the hard back of the sofa and let out a long, deep exhale, "Can't sleep either?" he asked her, turning his head to look in her direction.

She too turned to look at him, and nodded a brief agree, he noticed her hands fidgeting and inside he knew that she felt as awkward about this as he did – who wouldn't?

A few silent, wordless moments skipped by, like the skipping of their heartbeats, and trying to evoke some sort of conversation between them, Draco heard Hermione speak, "What's that you've got there?" She asked, pointing to the crumpled looking letter that lay almost forgotten in his hands, still being toyed with unconsciously.

At the question, Draco's head immediately snapped into its direction, unwillingly tearing his eyes away from Hermione's face to look at the letter that he held. He sighed and placed it onto the coffee table in front of them, eyeing it suspiciously, like it would attack him at any moment now.

He leant forward, placing his arms on his knees and burying his face in his hands slowly – unsure of what to do or think.

Hermione too took her eyes away from Draco to look at the letter with curiosity, and she too leaned forward a bit to see it clearer in the light of the fireplace. "Are you going to read it?" She enquired, retreating back and looking at him again.

He shook his head, and stared at her, eyes turning cold, "I don't think I really want to."

At first Hermione still remained bemused, but then searching the envelope for answers, she got it. The Malfoy seal: immediately she understood. When it came to family, it was certainly a subject Draco would always avoid, Hermione on the other hand, was on good terms with her parents – being muggle born and all, they were extremely fascinated by everything they came across in the magical world.

Nodding briefly, she let the topic go.

* * *

Turning to face him another time, she saw the hurt look in his eyes, a sense of sadness lost in them, not something you often saw in a guy like him, that tough exterior always held inside it a misplaced sensitivity – she positioned a comforting hand on his arm and gave him the best smile she could give.

She studied his features, scared to forget what they looked like, and very much resisting to just reach up and touch his cheek with her other hand, just so she could feel his skin again. From his eyes, to his jaw line down to his lips – God, never in a million years would she believe that she would kiss Draco Malfoy and actually enjoy it, actually long for it to happen again. Her smile turned into a small frown when she noticed a cut on his lip and diminutive bruise on his lower cheek, she sucked in a gasp and moved in closer to him. Their faces growing inches away from each other's, for yet another time this school year.

He felt her staring, burning holes in his skin and move towards him. He knew because the soft cushion of the sofa beneath him sank slightly; he then raised an eyebrow, throwing her a questioning look.

Studying her, Draco found her with that perplexing look of worry; he remembered the first time he had seen that, for possibly the first time in his life he had felt cared for. He saw her eyes searching for something until finally they met with his own for a split second.

"Draco? What happened to you?" She demanded, tracing a finger on the cut on his lip. He flinched at her touch, and the small pain it caused. She quickly drew it away once she realized what she was doing; Draco in return, turned his face away from her so that he wouldn't take advantage of the situation. Hermione placed her hands behind her back, in the hopes of resisting him.

Her gaze followed a portrait in the room of the first two teenagers to become Head boy and Head girl – of course they looked happy. The girl from Slytherin, and the boy from Gryffindor - the situation was much like their own right now. She wondered if it had worked out between them, but she erased the thought and frowned.

Things like that do not work out – ever.

He wiped his lip instinctively, "Got into fight." He replied quickly, as if he had said it a thousand times before.

"Oh right, I remember." She said, recalling the uneasy event of the attack on her bedroom door, "You shouldn't have done that." She continued, her voice dreamy and her eyes now permanently locked with his lips. Before long, she caught his eye and was forced to look elsewhere. Anywhere else in the room but at him (of course she tied to avoid the portrait too, it only caused her to think too much), for a moment all she could hear was the flickering of the fire behind her, it brought comfort to her somehow.

Her eyes still held some sort of misery as Draco's held puzzlement.

Noticing the look in her eye, he tried to reassure her, "Don't worry about me, okay?" He placed an arm around her and pulled her into a one-armed hug, squeezing her shoulder gently for comfort. He felt her nod against his neck, and looking up she beamed in false pretence - pulling away a tad, she was afraid to be near him yet also afraid to be away from him.

They had something going, but they were afraid to admit any of it.

He returned the smile with great ease, weak but still true; he thought back to the moment at the train platform like a hazy vision in his mind, with that his smile grew into a usual smirk.

_It remained chaste, and from cupping her cheek, Draco tangled his hand in her hair as she leaned closer to him, her hands trapped between them and resting on his chest. Suddenly, he heard her gasp, and pull away fast, releasing herself from his arms and staggering back. Her eyes lay shocked and almost tearful. _

_Draco eyes widened when he became conscious of what he had just done – oh crap, that wasn't supposed to happen. His thoughts had brought him too far. The two of them exchanged worried looks before hurriedly rushed off in different directions. _

That is, the kiss was good, unexpected but definitely good. Nevertheless, when it was over, when they had broken apart neither knew what to say to the other and with that, it became another awkwardly painful silence – they both decided never to speak of what had just happened – or at least they tried to.

He fell out of his memories and found himself sat back in the common room, in the dark with Hermione. Another small smile emerged on his lips. It was only now that he began to feel his lips sting from that kiss; it was like he wanted to feel it all over again.

He couldn't help but find out and bring it up. Something inside him urged him to speak before the moment was over, but he couldn't do it.

"Um, so… about what happened at the other day?" Draco began – okay he just did it. Suddenly the nerves erupted about his choice of subject, but still wanted to know the answers behind it. He heard his voice quiver slightly at his words.

Without delay, Hermione looked shocked and scared, just like she had done several times before, her eyes refusing to meet his; it wasn't exactly what she hoped he would bring up.

Desperately, she searched for an escape route or something to say other than her own feelings. She stared at the window, but had a vivid image of her jumping out and thought that even in the magical world, that wouldn't be too painless – she almost laughed at that thought.

"What about it?" She blurted out, relieved that her voice sounded calmer than she felt, "Nothing really happened." She said, sounding hopeful rather than sure.

"Nothing?" Draco asked, startled at her statement. His voice sounded almost angry but then he must have backed down because he nodded and decided to not say anything more, biting into his lip as he did this, he felt it sting again, "Okay."

He scooted away from her somewhat, moving down the sofa just a little - but it was a painful gesture. He furrowed his brow and rested his head on his upturned arm.

"Why? Was it supposed to mean something?" She answered, her voice frightened but eyes held expectancy for his reply. She looked at him from the corner of her eye, trying to figure out his expression, she wasn't quite sure what she wanted him to say, but expected something nonetheless.

"Um," He started, thoughts running rampage in his mind, _"Tell her what you think! Tell her how you feel! – But what do I feel? I'm not so sure yet_." His mind screamed out causing him to suck in breath. He couldn't say what he wanted to say to her. Not yet.

"Draco?" Hermione repeated, now looking straight into his eyes now like she could easily read his mind, she wanted to be assured, so she didn't have be confused anymore. Her eyes seemed to look so caring; there was no escaping them.

There was nothing to do or say that wasn't a complete some-sort, confession. He tore his eager eyes away from hers and stood up. Hermione shot him a questioning and irritated glare as he walked over to the nearby window, his hands dug deep into his pockets.

His pace slowed to a halt, as he gazed out of the frosty panes and at the school grounds below. The moons bitter light reflected in his eyes and caused them to look emptier than they usually where. He was probably thinking.

Hermione sighed; eyeing him with utmost suspicion, but then threw her hair over her shoulders and stood up herself, shivering as her feet touched the freezing stone floor. Making her way hurriedly towards where he stood, walking into a bath of blue lighting, they were in close propinquity once again.

He failed to acknowledge her presence when she approached him, or maybe he just didn't turn to face her. Hermione got onto her tiptoes to peer outside, trying to follow his trail of sight, but it was harder to say than do. She placed a hand onto the cold glass, leaving a print on its untouched surface and leaned in closer to see clearer. She would have expected some kind of giant reindeer or something fascinating to be outside, but there was nothing. Hermione sighed again, getting back down to her small height compared to Draco; seeing as she was only up to just under his shoulder.

She opened her mouth to say something but Draco spoke first, both shocking and cutting her off. His eyes darted around the exterior of the school towers and beyond. "You want to go outside?" He stated more than asked.

There was an emotion of confusion inside of her and she replied, "What? Why-" but was interrupted for a second time. Her eyes widened as she saw him draw a small heart on the fog of the window. Afterwards, he smiled in contentment, as if he was proud of his work – no matter how simplistic.

Finally he turned to look at her after what felt like years, and she calmed down immediately, though doubt still flowed in her blood. He threw her a smile but she only replied with a small frown of some sort. Draco instantly turned away and his smile disappeared. He felt so short of words, so he said none.

"I'm going out." He murmured to himself, his grimace deepening and a swift hand wiping away the fog heart. It was gone. He exhaled noisily before walking hastily towards the portrait entrance, summoning his wand and some shoes along the way there.

"Wait!" Hermione yelled, stopping him in his tracks, running forward and grabbing a handful of his white t-shirt, pulling him back towards her. She rested her forehead on his chest and panted. He couldn't just go out, he was barely dressed and it was absolutely glacial – there he was in a shirt and pyjama bottoms, ready to just walk around outside for God knows what reason. What was he? Brave heart? Superman?

No he was just Draco Malfoy.

He took hold of her shoulders gently, snapping her out of her comical thoughts, "Are you coming?" He said, trying to catch her eye as she looked up. She shivered unknowingly at both his touch and the cold air that seeped in through the open portrait. What was happening? Was feeling alright, why the sudden decision of rebellion? What was the reason for wanting to go outside so badly? Sneaky Draco - always up to something.

Hermione gave a slight pout and looked around the empty room acrimoniously, she couldn't stay here knowing he was out there alone. It was another excuse to just be with him. She was looking after him. That was all. Nothing else. Obviously, she wouldn't be thanked by anybody, but it was these little secrets that they had which kept her yearning for more of him, despite his stubborn attitude and annoying personality. The friendship, the kiss, the conversations. It was enough to break her heart again, because it was wrong. All of it. There was a pang of betrayal as another emotion took over - something that was constantly growing inside of her.

She groaned and nodded, hurrying to grab her nearest pair of shoes (which happened to be some dirty Chuck Taylor's) before returning to Draco who had come back into the room. Abruptly, he stopped her from getting past him, and blocked her path. He looked her up and down in query, causing Hermione to look at herself too in question, _"What is this boy looking at now?" _she thought; but Draco just smiled faintly and walked away to go upstairs, not before signalling for her to stay where she was.

She made an attempt to follow him, but he shook his head and put up his hands to stop her, "No, just stay put. I'll be back before you even realize I'm gone." He whispered more to himself than to this girl in front of him, he left her with a half-hearted smirk. Hermione gaped up the staircase, as she watched him walk away; and even though he told her he would come back, it was as if she would watching him leave for the rest of her life. It was clear, he didn't know just how much that one sentence felt and stung to her. Realizing he was gone, leaving her empty and abandoned, it happened so much sooner than she expected. Hermione couldn't last a minute without his presence - pathetic.

She bit her lip, tucking her hair behind her ear and shuffled in her shoes, attempting to pull down her dress to a much longer length, so that it ended above her knees. What a choice for sleepwear today!

She headed towards the portrait of the teenagers again, studying it in detail this time, "_I wonder what happened to them. This must have been more than a century ago; they were probably just smiling for the portrait. False happiness." _She thought to herself whilst waiting for a certain boy's return._ "Regardless of this being one of the only paintings in the school which didn't have a life of their own, there's a look in their eyes – something along the lines of longing. Impossible, they can't have that. Surely this exact situation couldn't have happened to every student who was in this position. Maybe this is just-" _

"Hermione?" A familiar voice said from behind her, tickling the hairs on the back of her neck.

She jumped in a slight shock and turned around promptly, backing up against the wall with great speed. Surely enough, it was Draco standing there, just him and something in his right hand. Hermione blushed; hoping he didn't hear any of what she was just thinking, or for the matter, see her staring at the painting.

His expression became shy, for once in a million years, and he outstretched an arm, revealing to her a thick-ish jacket of his. She gaped at it before eventually taking it from him and hugging it to her chest, unsure what its use was. It smelt so much of him, a faint cologne that smelt only like him, she recognized it straight away but restrained herself from smiling. It was faded, like it had been worn and used so many times before, a scent of summer morning air, warm and cheerful. It was unlike, yet definitely his.

Draco chuckled and took the jacket, then helped her put it on, taking care to do it delicately like she was only a child. It didn't fail to make them both smile crazily. Then he ushered her out of the room into the night-light corridors, his hand resting on the small of her back for just a moment, a moment to short.

She followed him out through a slow walk in the dark hallways of school, keeping close at all times, scared of the crawling shadows of Hogwarts. She was touching his arm, but not holding it, the contact was enough for her to feel protected somehow.

They were quiet, creeping around the unknowing staff members and ghosts, smiling and peeking glances at the other in the dark. She just let him lead her; after all she was sure he would take care of her, his hand grasped onto his gnarly wand. He was ready for anything. It was still enough.

For a spilt second, Draco stopped in the midway of an empty, echo inducing hallway; probably trying to think of something to do and a reason why to do it. He looked at her and Hermione took this as a signal to break the silence. She took a small step away, to make sure she could see his face in the light of a nearby stone held candle, before she spoke, "Draco, where are we even going? What's going on?" She asked in stage whispers, ringing through the narrow passage.

Draco barely flinched, yet threw her a knowing look (as if he had known she would be the one to ask the questions), he smiled at her and shrugged his shoulders childishly. He took a step nearer from what Hermione had stepped away, closing the space between them with ease.

"Don't you ever just do things without them being planned? Come on Hermione just take a chance with me, I mean something happened the other day and it wasn't nothing." He replied, his tone sounding so emotion felt. Suddenly, he took hold of her hand, cold and small against his larger ones. He held them tight and nodded to her in question if she wanted to go back.

She laughed, but persevered her questioning, "Nice work smart cheeks. But that doesn't answer my question."

Draco returned the laugh and slid a hand across his silk, soft hair, still messy from his late awakening, and tugged at her hand. He contiued to stroll slowly in a direction that was unknown to Hermione, but she followed obligingly.

He stopped, still clinging to her hand for life and smiled sweetly (a sight to make any girl's heart melt), Draco half turned to her. From the corner of his eye he saw her eager for what he had to say, but he kept it Draco-cool, "The answer to your question. We're just going for a walk around. And whats going on? I just want to be with you, thats all."

She gasped at his sudden choice of words and left her mouth gaping at him. Hermione, as of her true nature, was going to say something back but as usual, was interupted by a certain pride filled guy,"I don-"

"Hermione, just don't say anything. For once let it be." He said, before smirking and turning away, walking and taking her with him. She nodded and grinned sheepishly to herself. Hermione stifled a sigh, thanking God that he had cut her off, now nobody was going to find out what she was going to say. It was alright, he didn't have to know yet. They still have lots of time.

There was a shot of cold winter chill as Draco shoved open the Grand Hall doors, and they slid in between the small opening into the school grounds.

* * *

_A/N :_ So there you all go, chapter EIGHT is now up!! Yay. You all know the drill pretty well by now, please review and review. I will only continue if there are plenty of reviews! So be honest, and not so mean. Anyways, sorry I have not had time to update so much, but hey guys, I do try. Its all because of exams and tons of school work...ergh! But no worries, I have this story planned out - I HAVE NOT GIVEN UP ON IT - As some people say I have! I am determined to write it out until the end, despite how crap it is. So enjoy this (filler) chapter, and I assure you the action starts here. So far its just a build up of feelings and over reactions. Aww love.

Thanks a lot.

-Fallen11angel


	9. Caught Before The Dawn

**Keeper**

_Chapter Nine_

Much thanks to **Keshet, rosie, LolLuna, MissGinervaPotter**, **kk1999, Jaja, Livi, Lady Padfoot21** and **MadeNew** for their reviews. They are much appreciated. You guys made my day.

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With a small creak, the grand doors shut close behind them and they were finally outside. The moon shimmered of the dew covered grass and the leaves rustled as if there were somebody hiding in them – but Hermione knew no one was there, she felt protected. The wind blew eerily between her legs and she shivered, drawing closer to Draco.

"Remind me what we're doing again?" She murmured through chattering bones, before blowing warm air onto her pale hands, causing them to warm slightly.

Draco snapped out his daze and turned to her, his arm wrapping around her small shoulders. She gave him a strong glare but he remained there, and inwardly she was glad he didn't make an attempt to leave her side. He sucked in a breath before speaking, "I am trying to get you to be free." He began, his voice almost patronizing, and receiving another glare from the girl in front of him, only a few inches span away, "I want you, for once to break the rules and accept a night with me, even if all we do is just talk." He smirked mischievously.

She frowned and pulled back away from him, so that his arms were too far away to reach, "A night with you?" She paused, "Is this is what this is all about?"

Draco nodded and for a brief second, the wind tossed the blonde hair out of his silver eye's path. Hermione forced herself not to stare intently but it was difficult not to smile.

"Then why couldn't you just stay inside, at least that way-"

"But you wouldn't be breaking any rules then. Where would the thrill be if we just had a nice chat by the fire? When we could have a walk at midnight, which sounds more romantic to you?" He responded, almost seeming out of breath when he finished. His eyes looked somewhat embarrassed as he bit his lower lip and looked over to the distance. She knew that this boy was some sort of a womaniser, but she never knew it had bloomed into this extremity.

Hermione scoffed aloud, "Thrills? Romance? What happened to the Draco Malfoy I knew?" She asked, her eyebrow cocking up in surprise. She came back forwards and poked him in the chest, "Is he still in there?"

"I'm not sure…" He replied decidedly, looking a little serious. He faced his palms towards her, as if to show that he was perfectly innocent now, in comparison to his previous wicked ways.

Hermione giggled, "Well, that Draco would only think about picking on girls like me and making out with any other girl he took a fancy to. He would hate all Gryffindors and love everything evil!" She stifled a loud laugh when she saw Draco's horrified face expression.

"I'll have you know, that one – I now hate every Gryffindor except for one called Hermione Granger. And two – I still love everything evil… well, almost!" He smiled and pushed the blonde locks of face again, his smile proceeded to widen when he saw Hermione blush and fumble with the hems of her dress.

"But how am I to trust you? Evil, thrill-seeking boy who brews into romance with someone that he's supposed to hate; and probably forgetting that this is just the girl that he's completely traumatized over these past few years. Nevertheless for some reason I find that I'm falling far too deep-" Hermione began to say, her voice growing quieter and more heart-felt with each word she uttered.

Draco's eyes widened, afraid took her arms and pulled her towards him, so strongly that they collided into one another. Then, he leaned down to her height, and brushed his lips softly against hers - catching them both off guard, before he quickly pulled away.

"Just shut up." He said, smiling down at her, baring a sweet side of him. He wasn't ready to hear whatever thought she was just about to say, he didn't think he would be able to believe it – let alone utter it back to her.

Hermione nodded, her hands lingering on his waist, before he took them into his own and pulled her towards a rather large oak tree, near the side of the lake. Soon he let go of her and sat himself down on the earth, without caring about dirt or any such things. She stared blankly and he gestured for her to sit down.

He smiled again, except it was hardly visible in the dark, "I come here every break, and because I can't hang around with my old friends anymore, I stay here by myself and just hope it does me some good." She saw his smile fade slowly in the shadows.

She opened her mouth to say something, but was too shocked by his sudden declaration that no real words could come out. She had known that he was an independent sort of guy, but it hurt her that he had come to change himself so much. "Couldn't you just do work or anything of the such? I mean there's homework to do, right?" Was about all she managed to blurt out in the attempt to say something nice. Stab in the gut, that's for sure.

He looked up at her, still standing over him, and shook his head, "Finished it all at night, I'm not a dumb boy you know. I do have some brains up in this thick skull of mine, even if nobody actually knows it." He tapped his forehead with his finger and almost made it out to be completely hollow, but nobody laughed.

Hermione was surprised once more, that she was finding a deeper part of Draco that she had never known about, she sat close to him on a root that protruded from the ground, taking care to keep herself clean. She leaned in to make sure she could hear every word he said.

"You mean, you're, in actual fact… smart?" Hermione asked, her facial expression comical yet serious.

Draco chuckled, his hands grabbing his chest in mock pain, "Ouch Hermione! That hurt," He gave her a more solemn look after he was done laughing, "If you must know, from the strict family I'm from, I must be good at my studies, otherwise it will prove to be another disappointment to my parents – its not like the way it is for you, where it comes natural." He shrugged, in the way he does when he acts like his feelings aren't important. Anybody that knew Draco well, would know that it was a common gesture of his.

He saw Hermione's look of question and he answered, "I don't really show it in class, yeah yeah. I know."

Hermione nodded and gave him a short squeeze on the shoulder for comfort, but Draco acted otherwise, like it wasn't needed. He beamed and almost bounced in his soiled seat, with a sudden change in mood. Something brewing in his mind, like some sort of child's play.

"Lets heat this little night date we have here!" He said, rubbing his hands together in an evil sort of manner, and his eyes flashing something risky. Hermione almost snorted upon hearing the word "date" but held it in for the conversations sake; she wanted to know more about Draco's thinking.

"What do you mean? 'Heat'?" She asked, confused and felt something of fear too within her.

His gaze continued to follow a strange invisible path before him, and he carried on speaking, "Hermione, have you ever played a game of Truth…" He asked, half in a daze.

Her eyes widened and she thought of a quick retort, "Of course I have, why on earth do you ask?" Her heart skipped a beat, when she knew what was going on and immediately, she was uneasy.

Another shrug, followed by a casual smirk, "But you've never played with me."

She rolled her eyes and propped up her arm to rest her chin on it, "Fine, you little excited child." She hissed defeatedly, "What do we need to do?"

Draco sat still for a moment, "Just say the truth, and it goes around between the both of us – well, we are the only two playing…" Hermione cast him another overwhelmed look and he continued, "Simple as that!"

Her brows narrowed to focus on him, as she wondered how he could mood swing from spilling some guts, to back to his usual self. He was a never-ending battle that she would always need to fight – for a brief second, she realized that she would never get to know all of Draco Malfoy, but only just what he would be willing to tell, and that was not very much. She stifled a long sigh.

"Okay." She replied in so much words, going along with the situation and Draco instantly grinned. It was only fair that he move as far as he could from serious acts.

"Lets start easy!" He almost yelled, his face turning sombre as he racked his mind for a worthy "easy" secret, and it wouldn't be too difficult, he knew plenty of secrets. Most of which weren't his own. His fingers drummed against his right knee and temporarily, his eyes met with Hermione's. They looked nostalgic.

"I used to be in love with Pansy Parkinson." He finally said, his lips twitching into a crooked smile.

The both of them began into hysterical laughter, Hermione couldn't believe it and Draco couldn't either. It could have been the most obvious thing in the world, but Hermione never even second-guessed, it was too funny. Who would know, that the Prince of Slytherin was once in love – with a tramp. She wiped a tear from her eye, "Wow, you must have been deranged." She said, muffling her laughter with her hand, feeling sorry for him. To think he was so lonely, he fell in love with her – she erupted into another wave of new laughs. His face held no hurt or motion.

He smiled weakly, "I guess I was." He watched as Hermione began to look in thought, brushing a finger over her lip as she did so. His smile almost grew wider. If he only knew what girls thought of at times like these.

"I thought you were going to start easy," She sneered, thinking long and hard until she could find something good enough to say, but not so much of a secret. After all, who knew what would happen after she told him all her secrets, he was still a Slytherin, and if this… this thing they had here, didn't work out, what would happen then? Her heart ached, "I like books."

Draco nearly stood up, "What? Come on Granger that was pathetic." His eyes widened, "Here I am willing to pour my heart out to you and you're stating the clearly obvious!" He nudged her arm and pouted in false pretence until she gave in to his gestures. She shot him a nervous look, before thinking again.

She couldn't believe she was going to tell him this. Hermione hesitated for a minute or so.

"Fine, fine, I hmm – the only other person I have ever kissed is Ronald Weasley." She said shyly, to which Draco made a disgusted face, sticking out his tongue. It wasn't like he already knew that, because he knew everything about everyone, but it still made him writhe at the thought of it. That Weasley freaked him out – him and all the other orange tops in his ever-expanding family. He wasn't sure when another would just pop out to his surprise.

"That's revolting!" He cried tauntingly, "Are you trying to get me to puke up my dinner?" He added in a mocking tone of voice, but something in his mind made him jealous to think that somebody (especially that ginger cake) had been with Hermione before he had done. He wasn't her first kiss. Draco suddenly clenched his fists but relaxed at the sound her voice and snapped his head to face her.

"Come on!" She said, raising her voice to accompany the silence, "I told you something better didn't I? And it's not like I wanted to is it?" She stopped suddenly, and a deep blush coloured her cheeks. She diverted her eyes to the ground as she kicked at the dirt. Soon her shoes were covered in the thin layer of dust. As if they weren't dirty enough already…

Draco placed a hand on her leg gently, so that she stopped moving, fidgeting and he looked at her pale face, covered by a curtain of loosely curled, brown hair that kept a barrier between them, "You didn't want to?"

Hermione looked up, but only enough not to see his eyes burning holes in her skin, "I only love Ron as a friend, that's all and nothing more. How was I supposed to figure that one day, he was just going to go and kiss me when we where looking for books in the library." Draco smiled and she couldn't help but smiled back at the stupid memory, she let out a small giggle at his overly happy face.

"What?" She asked, snapping his daze. He widened his smile and hugged her tight around the waist, squeezing all of the air out of her. Being in his presence already made it hard for her to breathe, and now, all the air was gone.

"I'm happy you didn't actually want to kiss a loser like him!" Draco jeered and she slapped him on the arm, moving away from his hug, basically because sometimes he was an ass, "But you know you can't say love and Ron in the same sentence…" He chuckled again, baring his perfect set of teeth.

Hermione gagged before laughing at Draco's pathetic Ron-theories, her mouth wide open in shock.

"Yeah, whatever Draco. You're turn and better make it worth my while." She quickly said, to avert the conversation away from Ron, just in case it might come back to haunt the poor guy. She crossed her arms over her chest to ensure restriction from any more contact with this boy and his sudden hugs.

Draco looked up and thought, searching through his memory bank before finally thinking of a good thing to say. He laughed before leaning in close and cupping her face in his warm hands, laughing, "I think you're pretty…" He said and blushed.

Hermione gasped and proceeded to grow hot red, slapping his hands of her and wiping any traces of his touch away. It been her burn and shiver at the same time. Draco laughed at her reaction and put his hands up in surrender, begging her to calm down, resisting to recover his position in touching her soft skin.

"You're such a liar!" She screamed, her voice echoing in the dark. This boy was too much to handle. That smirk reappeared.

"Okay you got me! I was hoping to earn a kiss from all that trouble." He stated, his wicked smile still not disappearing from his face. He leant back into the dirt and his eyes strayed over to her, at an arms length away. They whisked from the ground and back, again, to her face. He repeated once more for good measure.

Hermione stopped her heavy breathing because for a second there, she actually believed him – but he just wanted a kiss. Dumb boys and their hormones. She constricted her need to start hyperventilating on the spot.

"Okay, I um – I used to dabble in black magic as a child. I was forced to." He said calmly, as if it was an everyday thing. He wittingly, avoided bringing up his previous statement again, for though he thought it was very much true. He turned around and lifted his shirt up a little bit; to reveal a faded scar on his lower back, "That's how I got this." He said, referring to the wound. Draco turned back around before Hermione could react and he plastered on a small smile. She was on the verge of reaching out to touch it, but it was quickly lost.

There he goes again, back to the serious Malfoy that only pops back once in a while. His mood swings were seriously attracted to her.

Hermione hesitated, trying her best to beat his troubled childhood secrets with her own, in the hopes of cheering them both up; "I almost blew up a boy, when he told me he wanted me to be his girlfriend at my muggle school. That's how I found out I could use magic, and my parents sent me here to Hogwarts. For safety reasons." She said, almost out of breathe once she finished. The image of her being uncomfortable at the sight of love almost made Draco cry with laughter in her face. But thank the Lord, that she was incapable of blowing anyone up now.

"Well, that's scarier than any black magic. Nevertheless, I have a darker secret! One that's darker that dark dark magic!" He laughed again and shook his head faintly, brushing a shaky hand through his fallen hair, "When I finish this damned school, I'm running away to somewhere far away, where I don't have to face this magic again! Or my family either. I don't care what leaving behind, I'll leave everything." His smile was still there, as if was a joke, but he was serious. Of course.

He faced the sky and the absence of stars saddened him. Hermione stared at his outlined figure and her heart sank when she knew that he was going to be nothing to her – and just gone. Without him, he would never have to think about her again. She felt stung, but smiled.

He smirked, but it fell into a sweet, small smile instead and his cheeks glowed a slight pink in the milky moonlight. He opened his eyes. Suddenly, Draco grew an unfathomable interest in the sunken girl beside him, who now held no awareness at the moment, but at her dirty sneakers. He turned towards her and leant in, placing his arm behind her so that they were barely even inches apart from each other.

She lifted her head; surprised and wide eyed, tilting so that she almost brushed into him. As if it was instinct, she would fit right into his arms, as if they were a key and a lock. But she gasped and drew back, too quick for Draco to actually react. She a hand to her warm, breathing mouth, and he swore he could smell her sweet breath from his distance.

"Draco…" She asked, frightened.

"Don't do anything." He said, pleading.

Her eyes quivered, studying him, and suddenly she didn't want to be here anymore. She couldn't tell what he was thinking and before long, thought that he was about to turn on her. Before she could get up, Draco pulled her hand away, with just enough strength to cause her to shiver at his soft touch. His fingers entwined with hers and they lingered by their side, Draco's brows narrowed, as if he was apologizing to go against her will. But his will wasn't strong enough.

"I'll leave everything but you." He murmured, his lips brushing faintly against her cheek. His breath was warm and he felt her stiffen at his words, surely if he moved away, she would fall face first into the dirt.

Then, without thinking, he pressed his lips frivolously onto her own, so all he could feel was her yielding, tepid mouth, and he pushed harder against her body - engulfing all open space between them. Hermione shoved against his Quidditch-toned body, but soon gave in to his open, welcoming mouth and his ridiculous amount of strength. Kissing him with all her heart and soul, though she was unsure of what she even felt for him. The light kiss become deeper, and Draco ran his fingers through her hair, fully aware of her jasmine-light scent in his nostrils, his other arm around her small waist.

He was overjoyed, and she was falling in love, with so much depth it was surreal and wrong. He was the enemy…

There was a loud cough, and Hermione shot her eyes open, for another long moment Draco thought it was nothing, and clung to her almost-limp body.

But Draco too opened his eyes, feeling her absence of passion - only to meet with the heart-wrenching sight of somebody watching them. He cursed as he tore his pounding lips away, and Hermione who had been leaning on him for precious support, almost fell. Though he had stopped, the sensation of her lips still washed over him several times before Snape spoke to them. His heart sung in his ears, from both the kiss and being caught, though he looked calm on the exterior; it was another few seconds before he could hear what anyone was saying.

Damn, Snape.

"Look what we have here," Another clearing of the throat, "Mr. Malfoy and Miss Granger, out for a kiss in the dark…" He said, in his low, drone of a voice, his eyes hovering from each of their faces, piercing and painful nonetheless. Who figured that this night was Snape's patrol night, he just had to go and spoil the moment – as he does. Did this guy get any sleep? At all?

"Shit." Draco muttered, sitting up straight and for once, looking worried as he avoided the eye of his House Head. Hermione mirrored his expression after realizing what was going on, she gaped and couldn't help looking horrified. The girl who was never caught doing anything wrong, scratch that – the girl who did nothing wrong… was suddenly at the school criminal offence.

"That's right, Malfoy." Snape retorted coldly, probably still shocked to see these two people here at the least, an unlikely sight, "Swear all you want, you're still entitled to punishment for breaking the rules. Consider yourself lucky that you're in Slytherin, otherwise I would have taken much more privileges away from you boy! Like risk of getting expelled." He pointed a long, crooked finger at them and they flinched.

Draco stood up and Hermione felt like she had to too, she stumbled up and suddenly found herself hiding behind Draco for protection. But since when did she seek protection? She stood tall, and put on a brave face, though she felt otherwise. She shook and held her hands behind her back to hide them.

Snape cast her a brief look and said nothing, facing her companion again, "150 points from Slytherin, and both of you are in the hands of Filch for the rest of the holiday. I'm sure he'll be pleased to have some company this Christmas." Draco gave him an icy look and was about to give him a resounding answer but was cut off.

"Like I said, both of you, consider yourself lucky." He stated sternly, before grabbing a handful of Draco's shirt, forcing to escort him both to their quarters – he need no bother with Hermione, she was quick to follow close behind, he head hung in shame. It soon proved to be a very awkward trace of their travel to their rooms.

Getting caught never failed to be discomfited and tiring.

Kill Joy.

* * *

It was only at 3am that Hermione, who was sitting up in bed staring at the wall opposite her bed, that the guilt subsided and the thrill of the kiss finally hit her. Her eyes brightened, that they almost lit up the room, and she urged the feeling of just bursting into Draco's room to go for a third try.

But she wasn't sure if Snape was still waiting outside in the corridor, after he made sure they both went to their separate rooms - since he was there last time, when she heard Draco try to sneak out, only to meet face to face with Snape and get another loud mouthful from him. After a moment it was silent again, and she questioned what was to happen next. As she always did.

From the wall, opposite the windows behind her bed, she saw that it was growing the tiniest bit lighter. She wondered exactly how long she had been awake, but she didn't tired at the slightest. In fact, she had never felt more awake.

She traced her lower lip and smiled, he kissed her. Again. And again.

He must be interested, otherwise why would he bother, and for an instant, she thought he really did feel the same way about her as she did for him. There was a creak, and it took her a long time for her reflexes to kick in and realize that someone was in the room with her. Hermione moved her eyes over to the door, just in time to see Draco shut it behind him and lean on it in relief. He sighed deeply, before his eyes met hers and he flashed a cheerful smile.

Before there was time for her to move, he jumped into the bed to sit beside her, closer than her comfort zone let her believe. Where their arms brushed, electric was sent flying in all directions of her body. She took a sneak at his pale face, and looked away when he was staring at her too.

She smiled when all the feelings she had been thinking about in the past five hours, rushed and came tumbling back down. He smiled, and chuckled quietly at her face, he broke the silence and lit up the room. By now the sun, unlike the way it acted in winter, filtered warmly through the windows and gave an air of summer.

He turned his position so that he was facing her fully, and she did the same, not resisting her conscious for the while - for the time being.

"Can't sleep?" Draco's question ran out and they knew it was the same for both of them, he needed no answer – but she nodded anyway, "You always seem to leave me in sleepless nights."

He laughed quietly, but she knew he was, because the bed shook faintly in his movement. He reached out and brushed his fingertips on her face, moving them so the back of hand could trace her outlines too. It felt so good to finally do it without thinking about anybody else.

Her eyes flashed with a touch of reality, and he pulled back, though resting his hand on her waist, in a loose embrace, "What time is it?" It was her turn to ask the questions.

"Six." He said, "I've been waiting for Snape to finally leave and I wasn't sure when it was safe." His smile again, and not the usual mischievous smile, but the one somebody only saw when he was with her… that kind, loving, longing smile. The one that mirrored all her emotions, she wondered if he saw that in all her smiles too. It was unlikely – she thought.

As if he read her thoughts, he leaned in to press his forehead against mher own, so that their noses touched too. His smell was intoxicating and wondeful, Hermione leaned in to ensure it never left her, leaving her hands on his chest. For the first time in two days, she felt sleepy, like his presence was a lullaby alone – but she didn't want him to leave her sight. She felt free, and the sun's warm bath lit his sweet face up like a spotlight.

He smiled and shut his eyes, echoing her actions, and by the sound of simultaneous breathing, each one fell asleep in their own time.

In each other's thoughts and arms.

* * *

_A/N :_ Here ye, here ye!! I finally updated. Haha, first story up after all the hectic exams, which were actually very vital for the rest of my education. Sorry, that makes me laugh a lot. Okay, here is chapter nineeeee. Wow. Its not good right, and bad time switchingish. But well, i worked pretty long on it. Ahh, my writing is rusty. But no fear, it shall prevail in the end. And as for my drill? Yeah, say it again with me... Read Read Review Review. And be honest, I need at the critic I can get in here. Aww I know somebody that looks a tad bit of what I imagine Draco to look like, sorry Tom Felton, but yeah. Wow.

Thanks a lot.

-Fallen11angel


	10. Fireworks, And A New Year

**Keeper**

_Chapter Ten_

Thank you to **Charlotteflanagan, MadeNew, kk1999, and Hermioneism**.  
I am continuing this story for you guys!

* * *

The light in the Head's common room was dim, and the view from the large windows resembled nothing but a thin black curtain that had been hung outside. So it was dark and currently the night time again, after so little precious hours of the day and the ever hiding sunshine. Even though it was only the early afternoon, according to the grandfather clock that continued to tick in monotone strokes, it felt like an endless and shadowy night. Each second ticked, lagging behind and slower than a heartbeat… was there something else to do now that the satisfaction of punishing work was over?

The source of the only light was in the flickering ashes of the ancient fireplace, now saving it's oxygen after being alight for the entirety of the day. Hermione's footsteps, though only silent and muffled thuds against the thick patterned carpet, disturbed the peace of the unmoving room. She stood in the middle of the wide room and took a deep breath to calm herself – yet her sigh afterwards was shaky and hesitant. After all the work she had done, every bone in her body felt like the ache of an elderly woman. Who knew Filch was a lazy ass, who had a "To Do" list longer than the Grand Staircase itself? It was impossible how he could think of so much work that could be done around Hogwarts, and for the weeks that she had needed a holiday too!

The punishment was, giving credit to Snape, cleverly well put together though. Since that last morning, Hermione hadn't been able to see much of Draco, except for glances from across the near-empty breakfast hall every so often and then she had to run her errands almost immediately by strict instruction by any staff that she would have been assigned to. She was sure that it had all been a plot to keep the both of them away from each other, around the clock. Even at night, she was too tired to look, so she just slept – anyway it would be better not to see him, since he now caused the ever perfect record she had (well, mostly) now to be so easily corrupted.

Hermione dug a tired hand into her robe pocket and found a dirty piece of cloth she had used to clean all the brass in the Trophy room – which, in fact, was a mighty lot. With a frustrated grunt at the memory of spending an entire day cleaning all of the prizes the school had earned, until even her pores could be seen in the reflection. She angrily threw the worn fabric over at the fireplace - finally feeding it and causing it to light brighter, it crackled and roared in satisfaction. Her fingers, she noticed now, were stiff with numb and ache. So she shook them a few good times and then lifted them up into the air above to stretch her arms - hopefully to regain the sense of feeling.

Suddenly, where there was empty air, cold hands filled in and caught her own though they were held high above her head. Obviously, easy enough to reach for them. The owner of this single hand skilfully used his own to gracefully turn her around in a full circle, almost as if all this time she had been dancing with him. Before a second of the lagging heartbeat was up, she was facing a pale skinned boy, and holding onto his hands for stability like she was dizzy from a simple one twirl. Another second later, like the whole room had been put on a spell, her hair finally caught up to the halt of her movements and after swaying around a while, at last settled in rippling over her shoulders gracefully.

She looked up at Draco like it had been the first time she had seen him… if only this had been the first she had seen him, maybe things would have differed somewhat. His icy eyes were the colour of grey, and they gave away nothing this time. As she expected, it seems that Draco Malfoy was in one of his mysterious mood swings. From evil, to mysterious, to a full time friend… the list went on. Tonight, she had met with the inexplicable Draco, the mood in which, if her analysing was correct, then she was sure that he would talk hardly much at all. But speak through his puzzling actions that made her knees turn boneless, yet leave her brain hurt in an extension of questioning afterwards. It still seemed the question, was he a friend or foe – was still fully intact.

It's harder, it seems, to explain than to witness for one 's self.

"Are you going anywhere tonight?" He asked, his voice so noticeably edged with a tang of tiredness or the willingness to leave – I was sure of one thing, I didn't want him to leave me now. He elegantly let one of his hands go from her grasp and half spun her around again, like he was dancing to some sort of unheard music to only her ears. Hermione let her gaze wander from him spilt for a millisecond before turning around again, looking to his face for answers. But, once more, his face was a blocking wall and unfortunately nothing.

She sighed and let go of his hand, even though it was only lightly attached to hers. Now they were two metre's distance away from each other, almost on opposite sides of the room. Draco's still lifted arm, slowly dropped down to his side. His face still gave nothing to her. However, one way or another, he had found an answer on her own facial expression already, where did he learn that skill to read her so well? And had he ever used it before, when he was the only one to torture her into a state of misery?

"It's New Year's Eve." He stated bluntly, breaking the silence that engulfed the negative space in between the both of them, like he felt she knew nothing at all about the passing of time and days, "Aren't you going to go see the fireworks?"

Hermione, whose eyes never left his, saw a slight glimmer after the last word and wondered whether to put her trust into other one of his manipulative schemes. She scrunched her face after so gradually thinking about he looked so beautiful in the weak illumination. She exhaled noisily and twisted away from him, not being able to read or understand anything he was trying to put across to her - still. What was he trying to do to her? Hermione felt that stupid nudge inside of her, begging herself to trust him, but she just didn't know what to think or say. She was too tired, and she was beginning to see signs of it on Draco's face also.

"No, I'm not risking going out for a long time... I'll be alright watching from the window." She half laughed, pointing a weary finger over towards the large double windows on the far side of the room, where indeed it would hold a better view than most places would. The entire school ground could in fact, be completely seen from the height they were at from a breathtaking view – which was amazing since it could be so easily taken for granted that their quarters could be so magnificent for Hogwarts alone. And for themselves alone… It was like they were so close to the sky, and hadn't that been Draco's dream from the start?

"I'm taking you to see the fireworks!" Draco said, his voice a little raised and livelier. All previous traces of fatigue had suddenly vanished as if they had never been there in the first place. He took a small step forwards, attempting to slowly take his place back by her side. When she swiftly turned her head to face the opposite direction again, to avoid meeting with his eyes, he quickly took the chance and grabbed her eagerly but gently by the wrist and pulled her to him, then embraced her tenderly. Hermione's limp body was not a good sign of anything at all, but he failed to release her from the cage of his arms that he held so increasingly tight around her. Why was he doing this?

Did he suddenly realize that he in fact, missed her as much as he missed him? Or was he trying to yet again bid her to do his will? Nothing was going straight anymore, it was like they were in some sort of alternate disjointed dimension, where Draco was in love with her and she was the evil one for pushing him away so much. It felt alien to her – every single thing.

Without trying to move the enclosure she was cloaked in, Hermione lifted her head so that she was looking up at Draco's face and when she saw him finally looking back at her, she shook her head in disagreement to his request. Though she expected for him to change into a more suiting darker mood, more close to his usual self – he smiled instead and set her free from his grip. Unconsciously, Hermione held on tighter to him and he laughed once more, a silent chuckle, as he pried softly her hands from his waist and pulled her over to the double windows – where he at long last, let her go and climbed onto the ledge with such soundless ease.

Hermione wanted to tell him to get down, but instead couldn't even open her mouth and merely stopped to watch in interest as he begun to fumble with the lock of the window, which eventually creaked in ancient noise as it had not been opened in such a long time – possibly centuries or so. Their gasps were in unison as the windows flew open and the cold winter air suddenly flooded into the room with an unbelievable strong force that was enough to both shove Hermione backwards and Draco nearly out of the open frame.

The curtains billowed in graceful dancing figures as the windows flapped around in the violent breeze almost as deafeningly as the roar of the wind itself. Abruptly on impulse alone, Hermione ran forwards to Draco, and firmly clasped onto one of his legs, embracing it with strain, in the hopes of preventing any danger from reaching him. She wanted to scream at him for doing something so reckless out of the blue, but of course she knew it would go to waste. Her hair thrust sideward at the force of the air and as she looked up she saw Draco's hands holding onto the frame for dear life, but looking outwards with such an expression of excitement, she wasn't sure how she was going to drag him back into the room and off the damned ledge.

"Draco!" She screamed with all the air in her lungs, hoping to try anyway and stop him from any further thoughtlessness.

She looked up, narrowing her eyes to protect them from the icy wind that made them so watery, and through the strands of hair that battered in her face she felt the soft feeling of freedom. Draco half turned his face to peek at her, and she caught sight of a bright smirk appear on his face like he could hear her thoughts again. But that was impossible.

The feeling was quickly lost as another minute flew by, and her hands held tighter as Draco leaned backwards into the room. Another emotion bubbled up to the surface of her face and she flushed pink in anger, "Get down now Draco! Please!" She pleaded, in the carelessness of the circumstances she wasn't even convinced if she was having a nightmare or not. This was beyond fighting death eaters, this had a different thrill – it was stupid. Was this another point he was trying to get across? Or did she, even in the most dire of moments, read too much into things?

"Wait!" He screamed above the noise of the wind, "Just wait a minute!" The eagerness of his eyes made her believe that there was something that he knew which she didn't – she wasn't in on the secret and she wasn't sure if that was a good thing.

Hermione kept her mouth shut stubbornly, but was startled when he suddenly crouched down and outstretched his hand towards her. She almost jumped back and let him go, which would obviously prove to be dangerous. Once she was slightly aware of his plan to take her up onto the ledge with him – and for what?

"Come on! Trust me, Hermione!" He added, before gripping her hand and hauling her up so effortlessly onto the ledge, but when she insisted on sitting instead, he didn't force her to stand. He ducked down to her height, and wrapped a strengthened gripping hand around her waist as a few more seconds of breathless air entwined around them, causing everything to sway. The other hand he used to hold just as tightly onto the window frame to prevent them from falling, but as if on cue the wind died down to a murmuring ghost of a thing and it was just suddenly a quiet night again. Hermione let her feet swing out the window and finally appreciate the feeling of being able to see that it looked like she was flying. She felt the harsh breathing of the boy crouching beside her, close and secure, but she resisted.

"What now?" She asked and her voice was very soon as whispering as the air itself. Her eyes never left the large moon in front of them, glowing with a million stars by its side to keep it company - just as his eyes never left her face.

"Wait a little longer." He begged soothingly, his breath closer to her cheek than she realized. So she didn't bother and confirm where he was, just in case there was another stupid mishap that may occur, and there were too many of those already.

She screwed up her face another time intolerantly, and didn't care what she was waiting for, "I don't trust you. I don't trust this." She waited for a taken aback expression, but his eyes merely met hers with the reflection of glimmering excitement, and was it mistrust she saw? Or impatience?

He half smiled crookedly, and answered wordlessly, nevertheless as an alternative, took her free hand yet this time she felt it to be so coldly numb it was like she no longer held control over her own body. He curled her fingers until it looked like she was pointing. He chuckled underneath his breath like he was toying or playing a game. Her face hardened with the lack of any sensation.

"Three… two… one." He murmured, this time his lips brushing against her hair. Another second lagged and still nothing changed, the night was motionless and there was absolutely no movement. Her heart stopped, waiting for something to appear, and she tried to rack her mind to the beginning of this night and how she got here. Draco was still smiling, and held her hand outstretched out the window pointing at the sky.

His laugh, this time was loud and eerily crazy, "You fell for my trick."

Hermione's heart kick started again, but in such anxiety and confusion that it was far too fast paced. Could he feel it jumping out of her chest? What did he mean trick? Was this what it was all along? The words were enough to sting and prickle her eyes to tear up.

"What? I don't understand." She asked, unable to utter the real words that she wanted to speak, her eyebrows furrowed thinking of all the crazy possibilities that this was just a scheme, like she thought about him from the very start. Draco sensed her tense, stiff body shake and leaned away so that he was inclining on the opposite window frame, and watched her with curious eyes. When his hands left her, she swayed but regained stature by lying on the other frame. They sat on opposite sides, staring each other down, and both questioning the other silently.

Draco escaped her gaze for a second and looked up at the sky, smiling genuinely and he didn't look back at her, it was like his eyes were glued in a stare with the heavens.

"Happy New Year, Hermione."

She gasped, still startled and unable to speak. She followed his gaze and suddenly with a loud cracking sound the sky erupted with colour and mystifying shapes - followed by another and another. An endless line up of different fireworks taking over the sky so close to their window. The sky and the lake reflected the colours filling up the clouds, twirling and swishing around like small vibrantly coloured dancers entertaining her. The flashes were so quick blurred that it was near impossible to take in all the beauty so swiftly.

They were sitting so close to that part of the sky, that when another firework exploded, the ledge shook and sent them a wave of fresh air smelling of smoke and if you could possibly point it out – and magic. It s breathtaking, amazing and amongst all things you thought you could think you would never be able to feel. The fireworks looked like an invisible force was blowing dazzling stars into the sky, and throwing confetti too. The pieces would all soar up like a rocket and then burst out into a million radiant pieces, prior to looping and weaving patterns about; pending until they arrived to the close proximity of the floor, then sustaining in falling like beautiful senseless rain, and then unexpectedly scattering into the current of air that carried it away and down the valley, continuing its dancing journey.

Hermione was so caught up watching, she forgot the world. In fact she just didn't care and was glad she waited for it all night. He mind was blank but for pictures of the lights and the flashes… the reflection in his eyes. Wait!

Before she could react to the hasty propinquity, the next thing next to bliss she felt was the feel of soft lips upon hers. It wasn't like any other of the kisses she ever felt, this one was calm, temperate and immediate – only lasting a few heavenly seconds. And then it was over - all of it.

The tranquil airstream blew back in one preceding sigh upon the space and, her hair swayed inaudibly off her shoulders and trailed forwards and back. She opened her eyes and the room was completely dim again, absent from both the lights of the fireworks and the light of the moon, which was now hidden behind the thick clouds of smoke that the glitters left behind so carelessly.

She shivered when two frozen, grey eyes met with hers, like melted coffee, and finally showed emotion. He smiled so wide, even the sides of his eyes crinkled up and his expression was in ecstasy. He brushed his hands upon her cheeks; she noticed his movements were hurried, never lingering in any place for too long.

"Like I said, you fell for my trick." He smiled another heart warming smile and jumped off the ledge into the living room, then preceded in standing a metre away from her.

She caught the laugh and joined in, blushing rosy pink and staring down at the floor, aware that she was unable to move.

"It was hardly a trick." She answered, trying to maintain any ounce of dignity that she may have so freely given away.

"Oh, but it was. Very well planned too I thought."

"And what could possibly receive out of it?"

He didn't answer for a long minute, but instead stared at her face with peaceful kindness and calm. Until he shrugged, "A change of heart?"

Hermione didn't half understand but let it go. He was compromising for her, so she should do the same right? His face was covered by the shadow of the room, until he walked forwards slowly into the weak moonlight and stood in front of her, making her take his face in her hands.

"Do you think you trust me now?" He hesitated to ask. But his confident face contradicted the tremor in his voice, his eyes piercing for an answer, as if staring into the depths of her soul – metaphorically speaking.

"I think I still don't know." Hermione responded truthfully, and her heart sank inwardly with guilt and the disappointment of her own hurtful words. Were these her own emotions or the empathy of his?

Draco laughed one final, beautiful laugh that sounded more like a ringing song in her ears. He gave her another pointless shrug, and began to walk away, further into the darkness of the room, making his way towards the staircase.

Hermione watched carefully, and her eyes almost widened when he unexpectedly stopped midway and half- turned back to her. Changing his mind about whether he had something to say or not. She listened intently into the silence that proceeded growth, like ivy vines scattering across the room.

"I guess I can't tell you just yet then…" He trailed off, his sentence broken by a smirk that resurfaced on his lips.

"Tell me what?" Hermione asked, curiosity boiling out of every pore like a sweltering kettle. Swooning over what next riddle he had now given her to think about with racking, tired brains.

"Goodnight Hermione."

His voice was already coming from the upstairs landing, followed by a few brief footsteps and the sound of a shutting door. That boy was too cunning and much too contrived for her - that was for sure...

* * *

_A/N :_ Well well, first thing I wanna say is sorry - and if you are still reading this. Highly doubtfully, I bow down to you for sticking throughout my awkward timing for so long! Ahhh... There we go. Another cheesy (extra cheesy) chapter just for you. And yes, haha - can you all guess what he wants to tell her yet? I don't know! ^^

It's not my best, but at least I managed to make the chapter long enough to proceed my next absence since I have TONNES of exams coming up... Eek. help me!

Thanks so much...I'll try not to drabble, babble etc. Whatever. Thank you thank you thank you. And see ya!  
Please review - I beg you. Well, not really. But it would be nice to get some reviews. ^^

-Fallen11angel


	11. Broomstick Cupboard

**Keeper**

_Chapter Eleven_

Thank you to **ThatNewDemiGod, edwardsgurl9493, kk1999, OBLuvr13, Charlotte, Sarjhi and MadeNew**.  
Beat me with a stick if you please, I have been away too long.  
(Or a broomstick if you prefer as crazy as this chapter will be.)

* * *

Hermione lingered in the corridor a moment's longer, unsure of what exactly she was waiting for now that a break can commenced after her third class and busying corridor had given her a reality shock - in contrast to the weeks of empty hallways she'd had to stalk for so long. It was hard believe that this was that very same corridor, once so empty and still that anything that stirred within a distance of the place could be felt beneath your feet, and now the crowds of eager children to meet with others had caused her to avoid the thought of shoving through and had left her to retreat into a cove in the wall for safety.

She shut her eyes tight and at a failed attempt to drown out the sound of the roaring children's conversations, about holidays, gifts, relationships and aimless gossip, that she succeeded to wrap her arms tightly around her books and hug them to her chest. She opened her eyes, and let them adjust once more to the light, which was a bright winter morning light that shone mercilessly through the arches, mocking to letting you believe that it would be a beautiful warm day out, when actually it's crisp and as icy as you left it to be.

She peered up and down the corridor wondering when the endless students of the school would disperse into a more civilized crowd and allow her to pass unscathed - when a voice rang out from amongst the dark black, swinging robes, various heights and assorted hair colours, causing her to squint into the masses in question when the voice had already been made familiar to her all year.

"Well, well, look who's hiding from the sharks?" He called out over the louder voices, so that could just about make out what he said. So they had returned to nonchalant battles of banter now that witnesses had arrived? Hadn't it been much different when the school was empty of prying eyes and gossiping mouths? Or had that changed?

He had merely made it through unharmed as the children were afraid of touching him, in the spite of causing his heightened anxiety, fearfulness or malicious temper – she had not that kind of power and would be murdered in the instant she attempted to move through to classes. A habit of a comeback had sparked in her veins as he reached her in the cove and had to stand within semi- close proximity to avoid being taken down from behind.

"The sharks? What sort of saying is that? It wasn't well thought out was it?" Hermione retorted, shocked at how she produced a smirk only worthy of a Malfoy boy so she glanced away to calm herself and let it defuse.

"Hey, aren't you trying to be feisty today Miss Granger? Not that I haven't seen for a good week or so…" He mocked in his playful way as he leaned forward to press his hand onto the wall behind her, seemingly pinning her in position and embarrassed of the many eyes that could witness the scene, "Where have you been hi-ding?"

"Me? Hiding? Don't be preposterous! And move your arm from there, people are looking!" Hermione stage whispered as she moved her face close to his angrily to stare at his eyes and pleading him inwardly to move away. She made an attempt to swat his arm away but failed, as she does so many times, when he remained unstirred and blatantly amused by her wimpiest and ever quickly frustrated behaviour.

"You should know by now, that I have no care for what people see me doing. And by the looks of your face, I could be torturing your little soul by now!" He continued in his mockery as he proceeded in his turn to draw his face slightly closer to look her in the eye and return the looks she gave to him, "It's just everyday scenes to them, me against you ...and I would probably win." That smirk, again, Hermione watched in the perfect way it played and manipulated his expression. Her own expression harboured a narrowing set of eyes and upturned proud chine she loved to use.

"Psh! Let's not take account for the last time I punched you square in the face!" She replied quickly and smugly, in the slight disappointment that his reaction gave nothing away again, leaving her no satisfaction victory even if she thought she had won their daily bantering teases.

"And let's not forget the last time you kissed me!" He said in stage whisper, so only that she could hear it, making her numb till her knees, hard to breathe and unable to conjure an attempt at a witty reply. She thrived to shut her astonished gaping mouth, and that he dared to play that card, in exasperation leaning back forcedly onto the wall behind her, only that it didn't feel like a wall. She stopped her self after another inward battle to smack the back of her book into his twisted smirk of a smile.

The back of her head and hair felt the sharp edges of wooden texture and rough exterior like many ancient doors that lead to undiscovered places around the school, it made her wonder where exactly this would take her if she dared to explore. She unwrapped one hand from around her books and slowly slid it across the splintery surface and compared it to the smooth marble walls that the school so boldly upheld; she proceeded in inclining her head slightly to the side to look at it.

She forgot it for a moment, as she remembered the conversation at hand, and a trivial haughtiness overcame her as she looked into Draco's pale, expressionless face and icy, piercing eyes.

"Well let's not forget it was _you _who kissed me and not the other way around!" She finally answered back before she was interrupted by the shrill annoying sound of Pansy Parkinson swooning, as usual at the sights of Draco and came shoving into his back without seeing Hermione in front of him. Hermione peered from around his shoulder, amused at the other girl's likelyness to an obsessed fangirl seeing their idol, God or whatever sort.

"What the hell Pansy?_ Get off_!" Draco yelled frustrated as she latched onto his back and he attempted to push her away with the free hand that wasn't leaning on the wooden door behind Hermione. Pansy whined a little and powerfully propelled him forwards as someone from the busying crowd knocked into her, and he resisted in squishing Hermione in his battle between the crazy girls. What a scene this must have looked like - a few stifled giggles left the crowd directed at them.

Hermione was about to laugh aloud at the ridiculousness of the what the situation had become when a loud cracking noise had halted her midway and she turned around just in time to see that the weight of the three of them had caused the door to swing open with a ear-splitting creak, to reveal a darkened small room inside. Before she had time to digest what was going on and how quickly it was happening, another knock from the crowd had disarmed Pansy of the boy in her arms within a second or so, and without the leverage of the door to lean on or the hold of Pansy to keep him upright, the two fell into room unable to recover fast enough as the door shut them inside together.

A fumbled Charlotte fell through the scattering crowd and onto Pansy, who in her anger towards her, shoved her in the shoulder briskly and in the force of it causing the vulnerable victim to stumble backwards and knock over a stray broomstick to fall over and bar down the wooden door unknowingly.

"I'm so sorry!" Charlotte tried to apologize, waving her hands in front of her as a gesture of protection from a violent Slytherin, but was only met with the subjective angry screams of a hysterical girl, overacting at the meaningless and accidental action of being bumped into as a force of keeping with the crowd.

* * *

"Ah damn!" Hermione huffed, as she attempted to twist the ringed door handle another time in the hopes of escaping this tiring cliché of being trapped in a room with Draco Malfoy. She smacked a spread hand onto the wide surface of the wood in the amusing effort to either knock it down or making a noise to let someone know to get them out – or not.

"It's too noisy out there, that Pansy appears to be screaming someone down by the looks of it... or the sounds of it I mean." Draco muttered from where he was still sitting, remaining unmoved from where he had fallen in from the blur of outlandish events. He murmured a "Lumos!" and lifted his lit wand into the mid air to observe the surroundings of the small room, Hermione caught his eye as she sat down opposite him and leant on the door, her head titled slightly as if listening curiously outside.

"Well, isn't this fantastic." Draco said after a long silence in the room that he dared to break.

"Yeah, of all the bloody rooms and secret passageways in this school, we land in a broomstick cupboard! And not even the ones for Quidditch, because who knew Hogwarts had a janitor's closet with mops and brooms!" Hermione blasted in her annoyance, she threw her arms into the air with defeat as she eyed the dusty, tiny closet with a glare in her eyes, lit brightly by the golden beams of the spell.

"Must be Hogwarts' way of punishing us."

"Or greater forces…" Hermione interjected.

"You appear to be quite in a foul mood today, and I was just about to start a conversation by asking how you were." Draco teased in his usual way that only led to infuriate Hermione even more, because delving into situations like this was never within her intentions, before or after encounters with Draco Malfoy and his sarcastic mouth.

He shrugged to himself as he placed his wand on a nearby shelf and picked up one of Hermione's books with his thumb and finger as if it were dirty; he lifted it up and swung it around in front of her, "What's this? ...A diary?" He questioned humorously to which Hermione instantly snatched the book from him and clasped it on her lap.

"Excuse me, it is merely a notebook!" She defended though it was unneeded as he had already diverted his short attention to other things, "I don't appreciate you pilfering through my belongings… or talking about kisses for that matter!" She gazed compassionately at the floor, assuming that she had not wanted to avert that look elsewhere and to hide her blushing cheeks also.

"Pilfering? What a word! I was only picking it up from this dusty floor," He pronounced, accentuating the last few words as if it suddenly sunk in as to where they were and how filthy and unused the place really was, "And my talking about _kisses _is only the truth!"

"I'm not sure whether I'm in more disbelief by the thought of us having kissed or you telling the truth." She seemingly was in a terrible mood, as she placed both pale hands on top of the book on her lap and held it with such tightness, the cover of the book squeaked in protest at the pressure of it, and she leaned forwards in the usual way she did as a threat stance in readiness for a verbose combat.

"I tell you the truth plenty of times, I'll have you know!" He, in contrast, replied imperturbably as his posture was unthreatening and composed as he lay against the stone cold, webbed covered wall at the rear of the minute room.

"I dare you to tell me a lie." Hermione inclined, having her fury die down a little, and letting her subtle sense of curiosity take hold of her once again. Unnoticed by Draco, her right brow twitched upwards in the impatience of the question, waiting for a dreadful answer.

"Not a lie, but a trick. I love to pull tricks on you Hermione Granger… perhaps lies from your perspective just in case you decide to bring this up later." Draco had once more retreated into that playful shell of his, his voice ebbed with mockery or a sense of teasing, joking or was that just how it always sounded… so sarcastic? Or conniving?

"I can't say I'm not used to it."

"Three Broomsticks." He stated aloud.

"What?" Hermione asked confused.

"Last lie, or trick… or both."

"You're not even making sense anymore, forget I asked," Hermione retorted feeling prickles of violent abuse make their way to the top of her throat to take advantage of her given situation, "The confinement of this room has driven you to insanity within a few minutes." She added a "hmph!" and tried to keep the appearance of looking calm.

"That day in the Three Broomsticks I told you I wished for company. But I didn't wish for that, and nevertheless I wanted to trick you to keep you from your precious friends…  
At the time, I was doing it in the spite of you and knew you would let me have my way… yet who knew all I wanted was just to keep you to myself." Draco rambled on and stared into the pitch black dark of the ceiling, implying that this room stretched vertically and not horizontally, and making it larger than it seemed. She could not see the expression of his eyes anymore as they had ventured from her, as in times such as this when the Draco's wall came down, she looked to his eyes for answers she could understand.

"I still don't unders-"

"That night, what I wished for _you_ and I'm still not sure if I've got it or not." He said, slowly so that it sunk into her head, but she didn't let it or want to let it. She stared blankly at him and prayed for the offhand mood to return and drive the seriousness away. She knew now he was looking right at her, because as usual, she could feel it and it was now her turn to avert her eyes in any direction but in that one.

"Stop being so melodramatic." She said finally, before crossing her arms on her chest in the appearance that she was brooding or pouting, whatever.

"You asked the question. I told you the truth… see, the _truth_." He replied, proceeding to shrug uncaringly when she peered at him from the side of her eyes. However they soon became narrowed slits as she decided to turn elsewhere again.

"I profound sense of mixed feelings towards you, I both hate you very much and lo-" She paused, "Well, yes. I loathe and dislike you a great deal."

He smiled a genuine smile of his, brighter than the light in the room, or so to speak. It wasn't a grin or a tight lipped curl, but a nice smile that caused a little – and only a little – flutter in her stomach and chest that she tried to ignore.

"I can't say the feelings mutual."

She ignored the comment, as she sighed a deep sigh of thought and tried to comprehend the predicament that she had dived into – not just the trapped-in-a-broomstick-cupboard-with-Malfoy but the Draco situation entirely. For God's sake it had only been the duration of one term! Dabbling into this sort of issue would make the world a living hell, not that it wasn't so already, but this would make it worse.

"Speaking of kisses." A suggestive voice from the opposite side of the room, which let Hermione believe that a certain boy had regained his typical joking mood; she rolled her eyes in the darkness and compared him to the woman with pms – with his ever changing mood swings from this to that.

"Shut up Malfoy, that conversation is over." She crossed her arms tighter around her chest and tried to keep her dignity intact by uplifting her chin away from him in a proud pose.

"Can't say all our meetings have ended in a kiss?" Her brow cocked up in surprise, as she questioned him. Was he mocking her again? Tricking her to his will and amusement? In her reaction she hesitantly grabbed a broomstick propped up by the corner of the room covered in cobwebs and decades of dust, before holding it out in a horizontal position in front of her across her chest.

He chuckled aloud and she kept her stance in the high risk that this would all go wrong. Unable to anticipate what was to happen and incapable of picturing any scenario in her mind of any sort, whether it should end in a kiss or a beating with a broomstick, because Draco Malfoy had used his tricks on her far too long.

She held the broom at feebly arm's reach and shut her eyes in impatient expectation. When the same loud crack of the door and deafening creak of it as it decided to swing upon at any given time – _not_ – allowed her to fall back out of that tiny closet in her will, with a faint 'thud' as she collided with the floor and remained in the absurdity of her laying down flat, but for the outstretched arms with a broomstick in hand and sprawled mop of her hair that framed her face.

Hermione opened her eyes, and felt the immense rush of blood to her cheeks that she knew would turn into the most ludicrous shade of pink. As she set down the broom on her stomach and sighed, looking up at the familiar face of Charlotte who in her own shock, was rooted to the position of removing the bar from the door and aiding them to escape from that prison she now despised as a tool for her humiliation.

"Oh hi?" Charlotte both greeted and asked, staring in bewilderment at Hermione laying the on the floor by her feet. Hermione heard the distant chuckle of Draco inside the cupboard still, and resisted the urge to kick him hard as she could still reach him.

"Tricked you?" He stated matter of fact-ly between restrained to silent laughs, and in control of himself from stepping over her to escape the scene, as he knew she could easily beat him with the weapon she still had her fingers wound over.

* * *

_A/N :_ I already apologize for not updating this in the forever longest time, and subjecting you to read an attempt of a comical chapter that wrote in apology and to lighten my mood. Who would've thought I'd update on a snow day when school is shut! I know the chapter is ridiculous and filled with broomsticks, cliche and much else, but I seem to have lost a plan for this chapter and give you this! Taadaa!

Reviews for the last chapter sure came in! Keep it up! My acknowledgements already went up to you guys! :)

-Fallen11angel


	12. Faux Love Potion

**Keeper**

_Chapter Twelve_

Thank you to **xhellox**, **Freya-Rhianna and Jade2099.  
**The reviews were wonderful. (:

* * *

Things were getting stupid, out of hand and outright plain embarrassing, Hermione had just began to think to herself as she settled into a regular seat in the potions classroom in the front row. Since the room was empty, but for the handful of students who had milled into their seats without anything else to do, she too took her own seat and began to take out the books she'd need for the lesson ahead. Snape was rummaging in the ingredients cupboard at the back of the class, as she noticed the flicker of his silhouette through the thin drape of a curtain in the doorway, instead of an ancient wooden door as in most rooms.

What once was a complicated situation was becoming more and more… stupid and unthinkable. Simply because Draco Malfoy had that effect on her – he made her angry, crazy and love all at the same time; it was irritating to have all these emotions conflicting at the back of her mind. As if nothing would let this go right for once, every possible thing that she thought would never happen to her, did happen. Just to punish her for fraternising with the enemy of many years.

She flipped open her notebook onto the back pages where she made notes on occasion and dipped her quill into the deep black ink that appeared to swirl around the glass on its own accord, whilst she turned the pages of the potions text book to where she had last finished reading with her free hand. As she lifted her quill to begin copying a potion into her book, in the hopes that she would memorize it in that one go, she observed the random scribbles and unrelated words which had outlined the page. She had written these in the attempt to copy down complete statements of "genius" from the professors, when they spoke quickly and passionately about their given topics. However, her brain racked a little when she noticed a brief quotation in the bottom corner of the page that read, "…_unbreakable, eternal, unconditional attachment that alone can be called Love" _followed by a list of ingredients including rose thorns, peppermint and powdered moonstone, which yet she barely glanced over in a loss of attention and a shrug.

Hermione had heard another set of footsteps that echoed the large, dark and empty dungeon room, which was followed by the screeching of chairs against the floor and familiar voices in pleasant, colloquial conversation with one another. The conversation cut midway, as if the boy had realized that their friend had already been seated in front of them for a while, "Hey Hermione!" Harry called out from behind her, in an unusually cheerful tone which she had heard so scarcely of these days.

She was about to make an attempt to twist her body around to face her two friends and greet them, when she was interrupted halfway by the strong familiar grip of Draco on her upper arm in the effort to turn her back, all the while, taking a seat on the empty stool beside her, despite being uninvited there. Her heart skipped over a few beats, or perhaps was just beating too fast for her to be able to count.

"Good morning Granger." He whispered in a playful way that brought a mixture of distaste and excitement to her mouth, though yet immediately evoked a reaction of a frown and upturned brow towards his smug face. Nevertheless, she could picture Harry and Ron's equally disgusted faces at the scene in front of them and so she groaned aloud angrily, whilst rolling her eyes at his now teasing smirk, as he succeeded in provoking her temper yet another time.

With a forceful tug she regained ownership of her arm and shoved him slightly away in his chest, though she failed to notice the extra few seconds of her light fingers that lingered on his shirt that made his heart increase its speed by multiple triples. Hermione turned toward the predictable expressions of her two best friends and mumbled her greetings at them in mild embarrassment – she kept her head bowed down somewhat, whilst keeping the view of Draco smiling to himself as he opened his textbook in the corner of her eye.

"Contradictory of his previous attitude problem, it looks to me like Malfoy is stalking you." Harry said jokingly and in an attempt to insult the boy with his back now turned from him. Harry had leaned over the table a little and barely took account of Ron giving another repugnant glance at the two, then snorted before appearing to lose interest in the conversation. He too turned to his textbook, but he was only pretending to read, as Hermione could easily tell.

Provoking a reaction from Draco, Harry succeeded as his opponent forgot about the textbook and page in front of him that he was attempting to read, and began thinking of a comeback that became his new objective, "Don't think too much of it Potty, we just have work to do because of Head duties." Draco spat out his name as if repulsed by it, and thought inwardly to announce that perhaps the other was just jealous for Draco spending more time with his best friend than he did. Hermione caught a glimpse of Draco and Harry narrowing their eyes at one another in a stare down, and felt the faint blip of her disappointed heart at Draco's nonchalant response, or denial of their on-off awkward relationship… not that she wanted Harry to know, or simply want to hear it being said aloud for personal benefit.

"And don't worry; I'm sure that you stalking me would be much more fun than the attempts I make for you…" Draco whispered in a low toned voice that only she could hear, and her eyes turned immediately to Harry in the relief that he had not heard the words that had just been uttered from his enemy's mouth to his best friend. Draco chuckled quietly to himself at the expression of a slightly gaping mouth of Hermione before she regained herself, quickly giving his friend an apologetic look for her and Draco, as Snape marched into the room with a sweeping gesture of his robe. He looked like a strange, outlandish and unintentional drama queen…

As Hermione had turned back around completely to face the front and Snape had reached his front table with a concoction of various test tubes of potions, chopped ingredients and dirty pots, he took a fleeting and snide look at the pair at the front desk of the room, before a tight lipped curl of his lips signaled slight humor and vindictiveness on his often- unchanged face. Hermione responded in blushing bright pink and bowing her head so that a curtain of long hair hid her flushed face, whilst Draco looked back at him with immense pride and pleasure for the time. She was just about ready to expect him to announce the embarrassing secret of catching their kiss in the holiday, but was overwhelmed with severe liberation when instead, he had begun to discuss to the class that they were to turn to page 515 of the textbooks and choose to make a potion from the selection list on that page alone. Hermione had managed to release a deep sigh of gladness before she noticed that she now had to be paired with Draco, as he was seated beside her and that he was already talking away at the possibilities of potions they thought they should create. She regained herself yet another time over the past few minutes as Draco's soothing, yet mischievous voice came into her consciousness from the previous sliver of blurred sounds it was before.

"So what? A Veritaserum Truth Potion? Advanced Forgetfulness Potion?" He said finally, to which Hermione cocked up an eyebrow and leaned over him to stare at the extraordinary list in the textbook, and forgetting that her own textbook was lying open on her side of the desk.

"Are those seriously the potions they give us?" Hermione murmured with bemusement to the both of them, bewildered how she had instantly wanted to use them all on either Draco or herself in a fit of the new found insanity he had left her with. Was this another awful trick that the greater forces were playing on her? She could use the Truth Potion to her own will and forced answers out of Draco about every possible thing she wanted to ever know, or better still with the Forgetfulness Potion he would forget everything they would have experienced together, and they would return to being enemies – if that was considered a good thing…

"What the heck is this Polyjuice Potion?" Draco thought aloud as he flicked the pages over to a few chapters before, to which Hermione almost choked and looked mildly suspicious when she refused to look him in the eye. He gave her a questionable look and she stood up instantly, causing a loud racket and almost clumsily knocking over another student who was carrying a tray of glasses to their own table. She muttered her apology to the student who scuttled away in fear of her before turning to Draco. The irony that despite the both of them coming from different houses, they still evoked a sense of fear for their power, or positions.

"Never mind with that, let's just make the Forgetfulness Potion!" She interjected before he could question her awkward behaviour, slamming her hand onto the page to cover it up and threw back the pages to where it was originally.

Afterwards, when she had calmed down somewhat, she leaned over him again to read the page and list of ingredients, "Alright I'll get the ingredients and you can get all the other equipment." She instructed, as she turned to face him and was shocked when she almost knocked into him, as their faces were centimetres from each others, in the awkward position of Hermione leaning over to the textbook and Draco staring at her whilst remaining glued to his seat. Her gaze travelled down to his parted lips from where she felt the faint tickle of his warm breath on her cheek, however before she could do anything stupid and worthy enough of death to a Gryffindor, she heard that nasty, abrupt, throat clearing cough of Snape from behind them, causing her to straighten herself up with the most rapid speed and almost head butting Draco from underneath the chin in the process, before scurrying away wide eyed and blushing uncontrollably.

"Isn't it hot in here…?" She muttered to herself whilst fanning herself with one stiff hand and keeping the other propped on her hip to keep her balanced and upright. Her companion merely smirked to himself as he shook his head and he too got up to fetch the equipment.

* * *

Draco had arrived before his partner, reclaiming his position in his seat after placing the pots and test tubes noisily and messily onto the table, as well as setting down a cup of cold water – because he couldn't resist further teasing towards Hermione, as she escaped the scene flushing a cute shade of pink in her mortification and rage. Anyways, she was murmuring something about being hot, so she'd probably appreciate the drink willingly rather than notice it as being a gimmick to annoy her further, because he enjoyed playing around with that girl as a distraction for the other feelings he felt when she was near him.

Just as he broke off his gaze, he noticed her across the room, fumbling through the cupboard at the rear of the classroom, when another student passed through the drapes, causing them to billow slightly for no longer than a moment and expose Hermione in a fleeting glance before the curtains settled limply down again. Out of his consciousness was the irritating monotone of Snape's voice in the background angrily shouting and taking a faulty potion from a pair across the group, something about it being strictly forbidden and how they had made it anyway... but he thought nothing of it. Draco only acknowledged his proffessor's presence nearby when he heard his aggravated exhale and the sharp sound of a glass being settled on the edge of table, forgotten, before his unchanged expression became that of horror. Snape unexpectedly ran to the rear of the class, his robe flowing behind him in dramatic tides, to assist a pair with an erupting potion that spluttered its fizzing solution at firing speeds around the area, before he was to beat them with his wand for ever concocting such an awful attempt at a potion. He heard the students around that table screaming and making an effort to escape as the potion spewed and gurgled angrily at them, as if it had a life of its own.

Draco dared to peak and sneak a laugh at the ridiculous scene behind him along with the rest of the class that were safe from harm, then turned to face his bewildered companion just as she approached the table with a handful of items that would need to be peeled, chopped or some even sprinkled in the attempt of an advanced version of the Forgetfulness Potion they learned in the early years of potions – rather than just evoking a short spell of memory loss from time to time, this potion would erase any one memory of the person who received and drunk it, that is chosen by the giver. This effect usually has a permanent or long-lasting effect, depending on the drinker themselves and the importance of that memory. He liked that it sounded mildly beneficial and risky to use.

With a look of minor hilarity, he picked up a strange looking plant that resembled an extreme mutation of ginger or mandrake root, between his finger and thumb – and yet when he put it back down he stared with repulsion at where it touched his skin, as it had stained them a sickening green colour, like ink overexposed to a dry parchment. He stuck out his tongue and waved his fingers around in the effort to shake the stain or feeling of dirt from himself, despite his failure.

"What's this?" Hermione asked inquisitively whilst pointing a slender finger towards something out of Draco's awareness or attention, as he distractedly wiped his own finger across the table and watched with curiosity when all that he touched momentarily became stained itself, as if his touch was like that of a pen.

"Er, I got you a drink earlier. Just water." He stated blankly and keeping his gaze on the wild, chaotic experiment which Snape was beginning to handle and induce control over through mature repairing and organisation spells.

Hermione stared for a moment at Draco's unresponsive face to the cup she was pointing at, before hesitantly picking it up to swig down its contents, making a brief face of confusion as she was not met with the familiar taste of water, but of an unfamiliar solution. A bitter taste of dated and mishandled peppermint erupted on the taste buds of her tongue; she felt the greater control of manipulation take a hold of her, regardless of being able to witness herself under the potions influence. A potion? Before she was completely dazed, the scribbled quotation in the corner of the page reminded her in a succinct mortification of what was happening or the possibilities of what could happen. She collapsed onto the table top even though her weak, shaky arms attempted to hold her outright and if Draco had not snapped out of his daze and caught her in his arms, she might have been laying on the floor… again.

"Hermione?" Draco said, and adjusting her in his arms so that he could hold her standing with more ease. As she lay flaccidly backwards in a stun so unfathomable that her vacant eyes stared inquisitively at him and when she began to giggle to herself whilst she prodded his collar, and traced the line of his jaw with her thumb that he knew something was wrong. He leaned over to stare into the remaining cup on the table and swore aloud as he saw it was only water and saw a cup laying on the floor that spilled out its near empty contents of a brighter pink solution, whilst a crowd of people began to encircle around him and Snape shoved through them roaring.

"Where is that blasted potion? I put it down right…" He stopped midway through his sentence when he noticed the swarm of disorientated students and Draco standing there uncomfortably with an infatuated girl in his arms, who he both held up and fought as she tried to play with the loose strands of hair that fell over his eyes, "Malfoy, you did not let her drink that potion?"

"Sir, that couldn't have been our potion?" A girl called over from the depths of the crowd somewhere, and restrained from erupting in laughter with the rest of the students when Snape replied to her with a nod and the widen eyes of shock.

"What?" Draco yelled, and his voice almost broke in his desperation, as Hermione swung forwards in a fit of girlish giggles and latched onto him in a dreadfully recognizable way to that of Pansy in previous times, "This better not be the potion I think it is!"

The class erupted into another wave of hysterical laughter, but for Draco who was now fighting to keep her from squeezing him to death, rather than aiming to hold her still. Snape took a moment to calm himself before he spoke to Draco and apparently, to the rest of the class, as their noise died down just enough for them to listen with interest to his dispassionate speech.

"Love potion, Mr. Malfoy," Snape began in a matter of fact sort of way, now regaining the true extent of his impassive, nauseating tone of voice, "A deficient one which I confiscated from the two imbeciles over there with the intention of getting rid of it, but it appears you have already done that for me." He rolled his eyes at the stupidity of the class he was to teach.

"What? Well, what do I do? How long will this… this_ thing_ last?" He retorted in almost frantic nervousness. Draco held no attention for the members of his class that murmured and poked jokes towards him, and also for the fits of giggles that blew up the room from time to time, when Hermione proved to do something hilarious to them – like it wasn't already entertaining that she appeared to be in a daze of being smitten with Draco Malfoy. She muttered something sickeningly sweet towards him that made him want to hurl, because it was so terrible. At that moment, since Draco had also lost awareness of keeping her from touching him too much, she had then resorted to embracing him with her eyes shut tight as if with pure enchantment, as Draco eyed Snape impatiently for a response that would entitle his doom.

"I'm sure it will wear off temporarily, it wasn't made properly after all," Snape finally said, with a malicious curl of a smile from amusement and almost a silent grudge, "It appears to me that because the utmost care was taken when mixing the ingredients of this potion, a few traits have been distorted to others." He paused to look away from them before he continued.

"Like?" Draco prodded eagerly, because as much as he liked Hermione Granger, it seemed that he enjoyed her company more when she looked like she lacked a profound interest in him, rather than having her drool after him. He enjoyed the taste of secrecy and chasing after her when she tried not to want him, but having her want him too much was a different story entirely. Should he make the most of this, or spend it running away from the fangirl ghoul she had suddenly become?

"The potion suggests that instead of the drinker falling into an infatuation with the giver, she will fall in love with the first person she saw… otherwise she would have been all over those two over there, fortunately. But luckily for you, it was bad timing and Miss Granger, well you now know the rest," There were some stifled sniggers from the students once more as Snape smirked gawkily and continued, "A typical dose would last about a day, but I guess we'll have to find out later don't we? I'm sure the school will be looking out for this disaster waiting to happen, and you will be the entertainment for us all." With a great offensive look at the makers of the potion, whom Snape would be punishing for their lack of consideration of his ban against love potions… which nobody really cared for. He would probably lock them up in an empty dungeon with his sick sense of humour. Snape gave one last muffled throaty chortle as he turned and shooed away the rest of the students to their own tables – and now destroyed experiments, after they had been neglected for all this time.

"Oh no…" Draco murmured, now that he was alone and dared to look down at Hermione still embracing him and thought that she looked as if she was sleeping. As if she felt him staring at the top of her head, she too looked up at him and smiled sheepishly. Draco held back a facial expression of defeat before rolling his eyes. How unfortunate was it to have the girl that he harboured feelings for, to finally share them back – although not being themselves… exactly. Should he hide, or take up the opportunity for his urge to be mischievous? He poked the top of her head with his pointer finger while he contemplated a little to himself.

* * *

_A/N :_ Keeping it brief, thanks for all the reviews and sticking with this story throughout all my inconsistencies! Keep reading and the reviews coming, as I promise to update AT LEAST once a week, hopefully because school and exams are a bore though they take up most of my time.

-Fallen11angel


	13. Faux Hermione Granger

**Keeper**

_Chapter Thirteen_

Thanks to **Jade2099** **and BlackWingedHate.  
**Dedicated to** citrusme16.**

* * *

Draco turned the final corner into a nearby hallway, relieved to be away from the restrained sniggers and mutters of the passing by students who had heard of his unfortunate incident – well, since nobody was aware of his and Hermione's slowly changing relationship from the sidelines. He regained stature and posture as he patted down the creases in his robe, to remove any traces to show that he spent his whole day hiding behind dusty drapes and running down corridors from his new number one fan. He had to sort of act like he didn't enjoy one bit... not even a little.

Nevertheless, while he remained bemused by the awful turn of events his life had become, he was also quite frantically fearing for his life at the same time. He was becoming a little bit scared of Hermione Granger, dare he say it. Not just because she wasn't her usual, attractive and moody self but because could this be... a glimpse into an alternate universe where the effects of her love for him were really that vast? A glimpse into a horrifying future! He shuddered at the thought and continued down the corridor in the direction of the Great Hall. Though he was not particularly peckish, dinner would be a perfect alternative from having to face or confront the frightening fangirl alone... and who knows what might happen then?

As he approached the Great Hall, the sparse crowds of other students suddenly become thicker and thicker, and as they did the noises that accompanied them too became so loud that the air became thick with it. The humid scent of pumpkin juice and fresh winter carvery dinner did barely anything to wet his appetite, instead it made his stomach churn. Draco tried to ignore everything with the most of his might, the irritating sounds of banter, laughter and joking, for here and there he could place the odd snide comment about Hermione and the bloody love potion directed towards him. Did these people not fear him like they used to? Or had the boundaries broken down a little now that he was the go-to for ultimate entertainment?

He took a typical nonchalant stance as he proudly entered the large archway into the dining hall, placing his hands into his pockets and his robe ruffled and flaying back as he walked with dignity and a blissful ignorance – it was a vision of power... or so he thought. Luckily the noises did not die down nor falter slightly, so without meeting eyes with anyone he felt as though he was safe... for now. With a few last dignified strides he slid gracefully into an empty seat by his typical Slytherin crowd, Blaise, Marcus and Pansy – not that he particularly wanted to bask in their presence, considering their last encounters. Summary: fistfights, abuse, insults and broomstick cupboard. Pansy was the first to react in her amazingly brainless sort of way and cooed at him every time they met, as if she still had him... as if he still wanted her. Draco smirked to himself. The others however, bar Crabbe and Goyle for they were always far too consumed with the likes of eating to socialise during meal times, finally broke their icy silence towards him only to prod fun into his newfound rise to fame... as the new school joke.

As the only other person he had met to match his own mind in a conniving and intelligent sort of way, Blaise was the only person he heard to suggest to take advantage of the situation to make Hermione or to make Gryffindor crumble, rather than just to see it through till it died down. That boy was a menace and his mind never stopped bloody scheming. _He_ should be the image of Slytherin; Draco felt no drive in wanting it anymore.

Draco felt the prickle to look up despite not wanting to at the same time, and after having holed and disfiguring every possible food available on his plate with his fork, deciding to give in. With a touch of mockery and entertainment, Draco joined in the rest of the Slytherin table to rest their eyes on the hopeless figure of Hermione Granger.

By now a majority of the students had finished their meals, so were milling around aimlessly and socialising with one another in clumps often standing, whilst other houses even mixed with one another on other tables. The Slytherin table was the sole set of students to remain to themselves and dare not associate themselves with any other houses... they looked superior, or so to speak.

Draco peered through the crowds of random students into the view of Hermione Granger staring back him on the Gryffindor table. He almost wanted to die, and not in a good way, as he observed her taken expression with him – eyes wide open and gleaming, mouth gaping and hands clasped to her chest as if to contain her frail little heart. The traces of struggle that he had hidden were all clrealy visible on her stature with the wild hair, dust and creased robes. This was the ghost shell of Hermione Granger, possessed by an obsessive monster! He stared back in absolute horror at the unspeakable and decided, he did not like this one bit! Who could take advantage of such a vulnerable state as that...? Perhaps more harm would come to him than would to her!

Upon catching a glimpse of Draco sharing their connecting stare, Hermione squealed uncharacteristically in preposterous delight and stood up from her seat only to lean over the table, knocking a few goblets of drink here and there. She placed a hand cupped to the side of her mouth as if to stage whisper and the only satisfaction Draco gained from this entire moment was picturing Hermione's own self-loathing and morbidity after she should come out of this... spell. It made him smile a little, but this was quickly wiped off his face when Hermione clambered onto the table top (much to the protests of the other students, and very much regardless to the restraints of her friends) to call over across the Great Hall at Draco.

"I love you Draco! I'm so in love with you!" Hermione called out from kneeling on top of the table, to which Draco froze mortified and died a little inside, whilst the rest of the entire school population began to howl in uncontrollable fits of laughter. If ever you could picture Draco Malfoy fearing for his own sole safety, with widening eyes and a stricken expression - this was the perfect time. Only the few people sitting around Draco on the Slytherin table dared not react in fear of his temper, at least they had sense. He felt Pansy squeeze his upper arm protectively as if still proclaiming ownership of him at the same time, that he had to have a battle with her to remove herself from him. How could people handle more than one, let alone two fangirls - it was impossible! Was this how Cedric Diggory felt? Or dare he say it Harry Potter? By the time Draco lifted his curious eyes back to where Hermione last was on the Gryffindor table, she was gone.

A sigh of relief racked through his body at exactly the same time as a wave of possessive emotion, inwardly asking himself where she had gone. Nevertheless like much else today, this was short lived. Draco's body tensed to the most it could possibly tense before his muscles would physically seize up once he realised that every single person in the Hall's eyes were directed in the space just behind him. Draco remained terrified as it clocked in his mind why all their eyes were averted in that space, as he acknowledged the awkward tingle of body heat from nearby. He caught the equally horrified expressions of his companions with a fleeting glance before his eyes were covered by two small, soft hands and so blanketing his vision with a complete black darkness. He only imagined it could go downhill from here...

"Guess who, Malfoy baby?" Whispered a sickeningly sweet voice, so close in proximity that a warm breath hit his right ear. It was so familiar as it was uncharacteristic, it only made his mind a confused mess. This was followed by a silent giggle that could only be felt because the girl's hands shook a little in their place, causing his head to shake in return aswell. The point was, there was no mis-guessing who the perpetrator was, for it could only be one. Only one. But Draco's last thoughts were split indecisively between various methods of suicide from this point on or how to escape this hell alive! Thankfully, he excused methods of suicide and regained both mental and physical composure before he pulled Hermione's hands off his face.

"Alright, Granger. That's enough; you've had your fun..." Draco murmured, only because he was frightened of her reaction. He held tight to both her hands and kept them tugged down to ensure she could not escape. However, this kept them in the awkward position with Draco in the warm, alluring cove of Hermione's arms and leaning on her stomach as she looked down at him with wide, questioning eyes. As he looked back up at her, he thought to himself that he was and would never get used to this. It was like watching the cheesiest magical drama there was on television, only that he was part of the main cast and that the millions of viewers, were standing in the room with him. When Hermione gave him a shy grin, Draco sighed in exasperated defeat before standing up in such a skilful way that he had gracefully manoeuvred into a position where he was standing behind the besotted girl and holding her tight by the upper arms with his strong grip, without so much with a sign of struggle.

"I swear to Merlin, I am going to find a way to get you back to normal even if it kills me!" Draco stated aloud, more for show than for the sake of truth, as he began to push Hermione out towards the exit of the Great Hall. If it was not for the absolute absurdity of the situation already, somebody may have thought funny to turn this into a human congo train. But to his relief, the students let them both pass unharmed and only then when they retreated down the corridor outside toward the staircase did the burst of sound and laughter suddenly erupt from inside the Great Hall once more, echoing in distant mockery of the two as they walked further and further away from the crowds.

There were no feelings to describe how Draco felt at that instant. He had reached an all time low.

* * *

"Adamo." Draco whispered breathlessly before it swung open routinely and the pair stepped into the heavenly confinement of safety... or secrecy, so to say. Draco could have sworn that he caught a glimpse of a patronising look from the figure in the portrait or was it just a nonchalant look of approval having witnessed so many odd things from the school Head Boy and Girl already... maybe Draco was in the end, simply overanalysing.

By the time they had reached their corridor anyway, Draco's arms had grown weary and tired so that the distance of an arm's length between the two became more of a close embrace with Draco's arms crossed over Hermione's chest and shoulders as they walked. It would have looked like vision of a protective gesture or a defensive one. Thankfully, she had long quietened from her callings of sweet nothings and had now just learnt to be silent and "enjoy" the moment... or was she just as tired from walking as he was. Maybe the potion was wearing off... already? It had only been a day; maybe that fraction of the potion remained unchanged.

Once in the common room, still so regularly lit by the already open fireplace, did Draco find it safe to place Hermione in her usual seat in the armchair where she sat instinctively cross-legged, whilst he then proceeded to settle on the other sofa – his eyes never once leaving her, for he was still analysing. He was waiting for movement, reaction, a spontaneous sign that she was not yet Hermione... or that she was now the normal Hermione.

"There are two ways you can alleviate the effects of a love potion; you can administer a healthy dose of a hate potion to counter the effects of the previous potion or you can just... wait until the love potion has run its course." Hermione suddenly spoke in her typical know-it-all tone, sounding perfectly normal and back to her usual self. Draco sat up straight on propped elbows to look into her eyes, searching even more deeply for any sign of her return to the normal world and only a little convinced that Hermione Granger had suddenly become normal again.

"How long would I have to wait for, then?" He replied hesitantly.

All his conclusions about salvation disappeared when Hermione swiftly, but more gracefully (perhaps she was learning a thing or two about movement from him) stood from her comfortable place in the armchair to perch on the edge of Draco's sofa. In the process, pinning him down with her hands on his shoulders and if it were not for Draco's amazement in her sudden strength or shock in her actions that he would have instinctively pushed back. Instead, he lay back and let Hermione draw close, with her quizzical wide eyes and her hair falling at all sides to curtain them from the rest of the world. Only then between the closeness did Draco catch sight of the touch of emotion behind Hermione's eyes... a touch of horror or a pleading apologetic look which he understood so well. They flickered so momentarily that it was difficult to distinguish which between the two he actually saw or imagined.

"I love you so much Draco." She said, as if she were begging him to love her back and false emotion thick in her words. Of course maybe the normal Hermione would have the sense to realise that she need not beg, because he was already-

Draco chuckled in the empty quiet of the room, compared to his unquietened mind. Hermione's expression remained blissfully beautiful and unchanged as he reached up to stroke her cheek briefly with the back of his fingers, "No you don't Hermione. This is the potion talking, not you."

Hermione's face changed subtly then, her eyes watering and suddenly spilling a few stranded tears here and there on Draco's sweater and some on his neck. He was struck with a sharp pain in his chest than he concluded as an unspecified emotion, accompanied with the curiosity at seeing a girl's tears up so close and for... him?

"I do love you! This is me talking, it's Hermione!" She pleaded with more tears and banging a weak fist into his chest, that then for a moment almost won Draco over before he realised this was just a dream – a mere illusion to punish him. Or wait; there was no punishment, this was just an illusion. His arms reached up to cradle her slim figure to himself but they dropped limply across his stomach when he restrained the urge to do so.

He waited for her to become a little bit calmer and for her to meet his understanding eyes before he spoke, "Then why do you love me?" The smallest of a smirk appeared as a twitch on the curve of his mouth.

Hermione sniffed and wiped her damp face with a fistful of oversized robe from her sleeves, "Because... you're very attractive. Just because." She managed to finally muster, to which made Draco chuckle so much more. This was so ridiculous! But Draco was still touched because of this nameless girl's words who was playing his heart, because she had Hermione's face.

"Wrong answer, I'm sorry." He spoke in the gentlest way possible, and imagined all the possible ways the _real_ Hermione would have dared to answer that question. He would gladly trick her into it one day or simply just wait around to see for when the real time comes... if it ever would. "I want Hermione Granger to come back now please."

Her expression became confused, obviously still under the influence of affection from the potion and not fully understand what was going on. She looked like a young, innocent girl compared to the girl who looked years wiser than her age, that he was so used to having for company.

"May I kiss you?" Hermione asked, quietly and uncharacteristically, whilst staring at his slightly parted mouth.

"I'm sorry but I don't really kiss any other girls than Hermione." He coaxed, trying in his own way to play the situation so that he was amusing himself and further confusing the girl in front of him. He looked up into her cautious eyes with a look of disapproval. "Make it quick." He stated after giving in.

With little hesitation, love-potion-Hermione bent to consume the distance between her and Draco before placing both arms by the sides of his face. It was a chaste kiss that lasted barely two seconds but even the faux Hermione was content from this. Draco's heart may have stopped beating and for once he wasn't using his mind to ever-scheme, right now it was blank. Thinking of the girl who was using Hermione's face as a mask and playing her role unconvincingly well.

In her embarrassment and considering the deep shade of reds and pinks her cheeks had now burned, Hermione still spellbound or not lay her forehead on Draco's chest. Draco very much wanted to ask her if she could still feel that his heart was there... and if love potions could possibly be transfered by contact with the drinker's lips. It was a astounding thought that he shook from his mind quickly.


End file.
